txhxary  of  trhe  Cheolojical  ^emmarjp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of 
Rev.  Robert  0,  Klrkwood 

BX  6333^7m365  V52  1905 
Maclaren,  Alexander,  1826- 

1910. 
The  victor's  crowns  and 
other  sermons 


T^HE    VICTO 
^    CROWNS 

AND      OTHER      SERMONS     by 

Alexander  Maclaren  d.d. 


'91? 


FUNK   &  WAGNALLS   COMPANY 

NEW     YORK 
1905 


CONTENTS. 


THL    7I0TOR  S   OEOWNS. — I.  , 

THE    victor's    crowns. — H. 
THE   victor's   crowns. — UI.        • 

THE   victor's    crowns. — IV.        . 

THE   victor's    crowns. — V.  • 

THE   victor's    crowns. — VI.         , 

THE   victor's   crowns. — VH.       . 

THE   CHRIST   OF  THE    SERMON   ON  TMK   MOUNT 

FAITH   IN    HIS   NAME 

"  LOOKISra   UNTO   JESUS  "  .  •  •  • 

PAUL  AT    CORINTH 

"  TO    HIM   THAT    HATH    SHALL    BE    GIVEN  *'  , 

•'  ALL   THINGS    ARE    YOURS  "  .  ,  , 

THE   Kv£L   EYE   AND   THE   CHARM  .  • 

PUTTING   ON   THE   ARMOUR  .  *  , 

iii 


tABK 

1 

10 
21 
31 
42 
52 
62 
73 

®> 
93 
104 
116 
126 
136 
14"^ 


IV  CONTENTS. 

VAOX 

DYING  MEN  AND  THE   UNDYING  WORD         •  •  ^SJ) 

CITIZENSHIP   IN   HEAVEN     .  ,  ,  .  •  ,167 

A   father's   DISOIPUNB 176 

AHAB   AND   MIOAIAH 186 

the  royal  JUBILEE  .  •  .  •  •  .196 

"the  SPIRIT  OF  burning"       .        .        .        .        .207 
"seek  ye." — "i  will  seek" 217 

SOUND   doctrine  OR  HEALTHY  TEACHING  •  •  .  226 

TRUE  GREATNESS 236 

GREATNESS  IN   THE   KINGDOM      .....   246 
"THE   MATTER  OF  A  DAY  IN  ITS   DAY"      .  •  .  256 

THE   FOUNDER  AND   FINISHER   OF  THE   TEMPLE    •  .  264 

PBTBR'S   DELIVERANCE   FROM   PRISON  .  •  •  .273 

A   PAIR  OF  FRIENDS  ..•••#•  282 
A  soldier's  shoes  ..«•••        .(^^ 


a  life  lost  and  found  .       .       •       •  .  <«99^ 

Christ's  mission  the  revelation  of  god's  love  .  307 


THE  VICTOR'S    CROWNS.— I. 

*To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God." — Rev.  ii.  7. 

THE  seven-fold  promises  which  conclude  the  seven 
letters  to  the  Asiatic  Churches,  of  which  this  is  the 
first,  are  in  substance  one.  We  may,  indeed,  say  that 
the  inmost  meaning  of  them  all  is  the  gift  of  Christ 
Himself.  But  the  diamond  flashes  variously-coloured 
lights  according  to  the  angle  at  which  it  is  held,  and 
breaks  into  red  and  green  and  white.  The  one  great 
thought  may  be  looked  at  from  different  points  of  view, 
and  sparkle  into  diversely  splendid  rays.  The  reality  is 
single  and  simple,  but  so  great  that  our  best  way  of 
approximating  to  the  apprehension  of  that  which  we 
shall  never  comprehend  till  we  possess  it  is  to  blend 
various  conceptions  and  metaphors  drawn  from  different 
sources. 

I  have  a  strong  conviction  that  the  Christianity  of  this 
day  suffers  intellectually  and  practically,  from  its  com- 
parative neglect  of  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament 
as  to  the  future  life,  ^^e  hear  and  think  a  great  deal 
less  about  it  than  was  once  the  case,  and  we  are  thereby 
deprived  of  a  strong  motive  for  action,  and  a  sure  com- 
fort in  sorrow.  Some  of  us  may,  perhaps,  be  disposed  to 
look  with  a  little  sense  of  lofty  pity  at  the  simple  people 

1 


2  THE  VIOTOR'S   crowns. — I. 

who  let  the  hope  of  heaven  spur,  or  restrain,  or  console. 
But  if  there  is  a  future  life  at  all,  and  if  the  characteris- 
tic of  it  which  most  concerns  us  is  that  it  is  the  reaping, 
in  consequences,  of  the  acts  of  the  present,  surely  it 
cannot  be  such  superior  wisdom,  as  it  sometimes  pretends 
to  be,  to  ignore  it  altogether ;  and  perhaps  the  simplicity 
of  the  said  people  is  more  in  accordance  with  the  highest 
reason  than  is  our  attitude. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  believing,  as  I  do,  that  the  hope  of 
immortality  is  meant  to  fill  a  very  large  place  in  the 
Christian  life,  and  fearing,  as  I  do,  that  it  actually  does 
fill  a  very  small  one  with  many  of  us,  I  have  thought 
that  it  might  do  us  all  good  to  turn  to  this  wealth  of 
linked  promises  and  to  consider  them  in  succession, 
so  as  to  bring  our  hearts  for  a  little  while  into  contact 
with  the  motive  for  brave  fighting  which  does  occupy 
so  large  a  space  in  the  New  Testament,  however  it  may 
fail  to  do  so  in  our  lives. 

I.  I  ask  you  to  look  first  at  the  Gift. 

Now,  of  course,  I  need  scarcely  remind  you  that  this 
first  promise,  in  the  last  book  of  Scripture,  goes  back  to 
the  beginning,  to  the  old  story  in  Genesis  about  Paradise 
and  the  Tree  of  Life.  We  may  distinguish  between  the 
substance  of  the  promise  and  the  highly  metaphorical 
form  into  which  it  is  here  cast.  The  substance  of  the 
promise  is  the  communication  of  life;  the  form  is  a  poetic 
and  imaginative  and  pregnant  allusion  to  the  story  on 
the  earliest  pages  of  Revelation. 

Let  me  deal  first  with  the  substance.  Now,  it  seems 
to  me  that  if  we  are  to  pare  down  this  word  "  life  "  to 
its  merely  physical  sense  of  continuous  existence,  this  is 
not  a  promise  that  a  man's  heart  leaps  up  at  the  hearing 


THE   victor's   crowns. — I.  3 

of.  To  anybody  that  will  honestly  think,  and  try  to 
realise,  in  the  imperfect  fashion  in  which  alone  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  realise  it,  that  notion  of  an  absolutely 
interminable  continuance  of  being,  its  awfulness  is  far 
more  than  its  blessedness,  and  it  overwhelms  a  man. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  "crown  of  life,"  if  life  only 
means  conscious  existence,  would  be  a  crown  of  thorns 
indeed. 

No,  brethren,  what  our  hearts  crave,  and  what  Christ's 
heart  gives,  is  not  the  mere  bare,  bald,  continuance  of 
conscious  being.  It  is  something  far  deeper  than  that. 
That  is  the  substratum,  of  course  ;  but  it  is  only  the 
substratum,  and  not  until  we  let  in  upon  this  word,  which 
is  one  of  the  keywords  of  Scripture,  the  full  flood  of 
light  that  comes  to  it  from  John's  gospel,  and  its  use  on 
the  Master's  lips  there,  do  we  begin  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  this  great  promise.  Just  as  we  say  of  men 
who  are  sunk  in  gross  animalism,  or  whose  lives  are 
devoted  to  trivial  and  transient  aims,  that  theirs  is  not 
worth  calling  life,  so  we  say  that  the  only  thing  that 
deserves,  and  that  in  Scripture  gets,  the  august  name 
of  "  life,"  is  a  condition  of  existence  in  conscious  union 
with,  and  possession  of,  God,  who  is  manifested  and 
communicated  to  mortals  through  Jesus  Christ  His 
Son.  "  In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  manifested." 
Was  that  bare  existence  ?  And  the  life  was  not  only 
manifested  but  communicated,  and  the  essence  of  it  is 
fellowship  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ.  The  posses- 
sion of ''  the  spirit  of  life  which  was  in  Christ,"  and  which 
in  heaven  will  be  perfectly  communicated,  will  make 
men  "  free,"  as  they  never  can  be  upon  earth  whilst 
implicated  in  the   bodily  life  of  this   material   world, 


4  THE  victor's   crowns. — L 

"  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  The  gift  that  Christ 
bestows  to  him  that  "  overcometh  "  is  not  only  conscious 
existence,  bnt  existence  derived  from,  and,  so  to  speak, 
embraided  with  the  life  of  God  Himself,  and  therefore 
blessed. 

For  such  a  life,  in  union  with  God  in  Christ,  is  the 
only  condition  in  which  all  a  man's  capacities  find  their 
fitting  objects,  and  all  his  activity  finds  its  appropriate 
sphere,  and  in  which,  therefore,  to  live  is  to  be  blessed, 
because  the  heart  is  united  with  the  source  and  fountain 
of  all  blessedness.  Here  is  the  deepest  depth  of  that 
promise  of  future  blessedness.  It  is  not  mainly  because 
of  any  changes,  glorious  as  these  must  necessarily  be, 
which  follow  upon  the  dropping  away  of  flesh,  and  the 
transportation  into  the  light  that  is  above,  that  heaven 
is  a  place  of  blessedness,  but  it  is  because  the  saints  that 
are  there  are  joined  to  Gad,  and  into  their  recipient 
hearts  there  pours  for  ever  the  fulness  of  the  Divine  life. 
That  makes  the  glory  and  the  blessedness. 

But  let  us  remember  that  all  which  can  come  here- 
after of  that  full  and  perfect  life  is  but  the  continuance, 
the  development,  the  increase,  of  that  which  already  is 
possessed.  Here  it  falls  in  drops  ;  there  in  floods. 
Here  it  is  filtered ;  there  poured.  Here,  the  plant, 
taken  from  its  native  climate  and  soil,  puts  forth  some 
pale  blossoms,  and  grows  but  to  a  stunted  height ;  there, 
set  in  their  deep  native  soil,  and  shone  upon  by  a  more 
fervent  sun,  and  watered  by  more  abundant  warm  rains  and 
dews,  "  they  that "  on  earth  "  were  planted  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord  shall,"  transplanted,  "  flourish  in  the  courts 
of  our  God."  The  life  of  the  Christian  soul  on  earth, 
and  of  the  Christian  soul  in  heaven,  is  continuous,  and 


THE    VICTOR  S    CROWNS. — I.  5 

though  there  is  a  break  to  our  consciousness  looking 
from  this  side — the  break  of  death — the  reality  is  that 
without  interruption,  and  without  a  turn,  the  road  runs 
on  in  the  same  direction.  We  begin  to  live  the  life  of 
heaven  here,  and  they  who  can  say,  "  I  was  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins,  but  the  life  which  I  live  in  the  flesh 
I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,"  have  already  the 
germs  of  the  furthest  development  in  the  heavens  in 
their  hearts. 

Notice,  for  a  moment,  the  form  that  this  great 
promise  assumes  here.  That  is  a  very  pregnant  and 
significant  reference  to  the  Tree  of  Life  in  the  paradise 
of  God.  The  old  story  tells  how  the  cherub  with  the 
flaming  sword  was  set  to  guard  the  way  to  it.  And 
that  paradise  upon  earth  faded  and  disappeared.  But 
it  re-appears.  "  Then  comes  a  statelier  Eden  back  to 
man,"  for  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Restorer  of  all  lost 
blessings  ;  and  the  Divine  purpose  and  ideal  has  not 
faded  away  amidst  the  clouds  of  the  stormy  day  of  earth's 
history,  like  the  flush  of  morning  from  off  the  plains. 
Christ  brings  back  the  Eden,  and  quenches  the  flame 
of  the  fiery  sword ;  and  instead  of  the  repellent  cherub, 
there  stands  Himself  with  the  merciful  invitation  upon 
His  lips  :    "  Come  I     Eat ;  and  life  for*  ever." 

"  There  never  was  one  lo3t  good  ;  what  was  shall  live  as  before. 

On  the  earth  the  broken  area ;  in  heaven  the  perfect  round." 

Eden  shall  come  back  ;  and  the  paradise  into  which  the 
victors  go  is  richer  and  fuller,  by  all  their  conflict  and 
their  wounds,  than  ever  could  have  been  the  simpler 


6  THE   VICTOK's    crowns.— I. 

paradise  of  which  souls  innocent,  because  nntried,  could 
have  been  capable.     So  much  for  the  gift  of  life. 

II.  Notice,  secondly,  the  Giver. 

This  is  a  majestic  utterance  ;  worthy  of  coming  from 
the  majestic  Figure  portrayed  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book.  In  it  Jesus  Christ  claims  to  be  the  Arbiter 
of  men's  deserts  and  Giver  of  their  rewards.  That  in- 
volves His  judicial  function,  and  therefore  His  Divine  as 
well  as  human  nature.  I  accept  these  words  as  truly  His 
^7ords.  Of  course,  if  you  do  not,  my  present  remarks 
liave  no  force  for  you ;  but  if  you  do  not,  you  ought  to  be 
very  sure  of  your  reasons  for  not  doing  so ;  and  if  you 
do,  then  I  see  not  how  any  man  who  believes  that  Jesus 
Christ  has  said  that  He  will  give  to  all  the  multitude  of 
faithful  fighters,  who  have  brought  their  shields  out  of 
the  battle,  and  their  swords  undinted,  the  gift  of  life 
(eternal,  can  be  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  taking  too 
much  upon  him,  except  on  the  belief  of  His  Divine 
nature. 

But  I  observe,  still  further,  that  this  great  utterance 
of  the  Lord's,  paralleled  in  all  the  other  six  promises, 
in  all  of  which  He  is  represented  as  the  bestower  of  the 
reward,  whatever  it  may  be,  involves  another  thing — 
viz.,  the  eternal  continuance  of  Christ's  relation  to  men 
as  the  Revealer  and  Mediator  of  God.  "  I  will  give  " — 
and  that  not  only  when  the  victor  crosses  the  threshold 
and  enters  the  Capitol  of  the  heavens,  but  all  through 
its  secular  ages,  Christ  is  the  Medium  by  which  the 
Divine  life  passes  into  men.  True,  there  is  a  sense  in 
which  He  shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  His  Father, 
vhen  the  partial  end  of  the  present  dispensation  has 
come.     But  He  is  the  Priest  of  mankind  for  ever  ;  and 


THE  VICTOR  S   CROWNS. — I.  7 

for  ever  is  His  kingdom  enduring.  And  through  all  the 
endless  ages,  which  we  have  a  right  to  hope  we  shall 
see,  there  will  never  come  a  point  in  which  it  will  not 
remain  as  true  as  it  is  at  this  moment :  "  No  man  hatli 
seen  God  at  any  time,  nor  can  see  Him  ;  the  only 
begotten  Son,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He 
hath  declared  Him."  Christ  is  for  ever  the  Giver  of 
life,  in  the  heavens  as  on  earth. 

Another  thing  is  involved  which  I  think  also  is  often 
lost  sight  of.  The  Bible  does  not  know  anything  about 
what  people  call  "natural  immortality."  Life  here  is 
not  given  to  the  infant  once  for  all,  and  then  expended 
through  the  years,  but  it  is  continually  being  bestowed. 
My  belief  is  that  no  worm  that  creeps,  nor  angel  that 
soars,  nor  any  of  the  beings  between,  is  alive  for  one 
instant  except  for  the  continual  communication  from  the 
fountain  of  life,  of  the  life  that  they  live.  And  still 
more  certainly  is  it  true  about  the  future,  that  there  all 
the  blessedness  and  the  existence,  which  is  the  substratum 
and  condition  of  the  blessedness,  are  only  ours  because, 
wavelet  by  wavelet,  throbbing  out  as  from  a  central  foun- 
tain, there  flows  into  the  Redeemed  a  life  communicated 
by  Christ  Himself.  If  I  might  so  say — were  that  con- 
tinual bestowment  to  cease,  then  heaven,  like  the  vision 
of  a  fairy  tale,  would  fade  away  ;  and  there  would  be 
nothing  left  where  the  glory  had  shone.  "  I  will  give  " 
through  eternity. 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  Recipients. 

"  To  him  that  overcometh."  Now,  I  need  not  say,  in 
more  than  a  sentence,  that  it  seems  to  me  that  the  fair 
interpretation  of  this  promise,  as  of  all  the  other  refer- 
ences in  Scripture  to  the  future  h'fe,  is  that  the  reward 


8  THE   victor's   crowns. — 1. 

is  immediately  consequent  upon  the  cessation  of  the 
struggle.  "  To  depart "  is  "  to  be  with  Christ,"  and  to 
be  with  Christ,  in  regard  of  a  spirit  which  has  passed 
from  the  bodily  environment,  is  to  be  conscious  of  His 
presence,  and  lapt  in  His  robe,  feeling  the  warmth  and 
the  pressure  of  His  heart.  So  I  believe  that  Scripture 
teaches  us  that  at  one  moment  there  may  be  the  clash 
of  battle,  and  the  whiz  of  the  arrows  round  one's  head, 
and  next  moment  there  may  be  the  laurel-crowned  quiet 
of  the  victor. 

But  that  does  not  enter  so  much  into  our  consideration 
now.  We  have,  rather,  here  to  think  of  just  this  one 
thing,  that  the  gift  is  given  to  the  victor  because  only 
the  victor  is  capable  of  receiving  it ;  that  future  life, 
interpreted  as  I  have  ventured  to  interpret  it  in  this  ser- 
mon, is  no  arbitrary  bestowment  that  could  be  dealt  all 
round  miscellaneously  to  everybody,  if  the  Giver  chose 
80  to  give.  Here  on  earth  many  gifts  are  bestowed  upon 
men,  and  are  neglected  by  them,  and  wasted  like  water 
spilled  upon  the  ground  j  but  this  elixir  of  life  is  not 
poured  out  so.  It  is  only  poured  into  vessels  that  can 
take  it  in  and  hold  it. 

Our  present  struggle  is  meant  to  make  us  capable  of 
the  heavenly  life.  And  that  is — I  was  going  to  say 
the  only,  but  at  all  events — incomparably  the  chiefest, 
of  the  thoughts  which  make  life  not  only  worth  living, 
but  great  and  solemn.  Go  into  a  mill,  and  in  a  quiet 
room,  often  detached  from  the  main  building,  you  will 
find  the  engine  working,  and  seeming  to  do  nothing  but 
go  up  and  down.  But  there  is  a  shaft  which  goes 
through  the  wall  and  takes  the  power  to  the  looms. 
We  are  working  here,  and   we  are   making  the   cloth 


THE   victor's   crowns. — I.  9 

that  we  shall  have  to  own,  and  say,  "Yes,  it  is  my 
inannfactnre  !  "  when  we  get  yonder.  According  to  onr 
life  to-day  will  be  onr  destiny  in  that  great  to-morrow. 
Life  is  given  to  the  victor,  because  the  victor  only  is 
capable  of  possessing  it. 

Bnt  the  victor  can  only  conquer  in  one  way.  "  This," 
said  John,  when  he  was  not  an  apocalyptic  seer,  but  a 
Christian  teacher  to  the  Churches  of  Asia,  "  this  is  the 
victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith."  If 
we  trust  in  Christ  we  shall  get  His  power  into  our  hearts, 
and  if  we  get  His  power  into  our  hearts,  then  "  we  shall 
be  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  that  loved  us." 
Christ  gives  life  eternal,  gives  it  here  in  germ  and  yonder 
in  fulness.  In  its  fulness  only  those  who  overcome  are 
capable  of  receiving  it.  Those  only  who  fight  the  good 
fight  by  His  help  overcome.  Those  only  who  trust  in 
Him  fight  the  good  fight  by  His  help.  He  gives  to  eat 
of  the  Tree  of  Life  ;  He  gives  it  to  faith,  but  faith  must 
be  militant.  He  gives  it  to  the  conqueror,  but  the 
conqueror  must  win  by  faith  in  Him  who  overcame  the 
world  for  us,  who  will  help  us  to  overcome  the  world 
by  Him. 

Help  us,  0  our  God,  we  beseech  Thee  ;  "  teach  our 
hands  to  war,  and  our  fingers  to  fight."  Give  us  grace 
to  hold  fast  by  the  life  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ;  and, 
living  by  Him  the  lives  which  we  live  in  the  flesh,  may 
we  be  made  capable,  by  the  discipline  of  earth's  sorrows, 
of  that  rest  and  fuller  "life  which  remaineth  for  the 
people  of  God.** 


THE    VICTOR'S    CROWNS.— IL 

"He  that  overcometh  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death."— 
R,BV.  ii  IL 

TWO  of  the  seven  Churches — viz.,  Smyrna,  to  which 
our  text  is  addressed,  and  Philadelphia — offered 
nothing,  to  the  pure  eyes  of  Christ,  that  needed  rebuke. 
The  same  two,  and  these  only,  were  warned  to  expect 
persecution.  The  higher  the  tone  of  Christian  life  in 
the  Church  the  more  likely  it  is  to  attract  dislike,  and, 
if  circumstances  permit,  hostility.  Hence  the  whole  gist 
of  this  letter  is  to  encourage  to  steadfastness,  even  if  the 
penalty  is  death. 

That  purpose  determined  at  once  the  aspect  of  Christ 
which  is  presented  in  the  beginning,  and  the  aspect  of 
future  blessedness  which  is  held  forth  at  the  close.  The 
aspect  of  Christ  is — "  these  things  saith  the  First  and  the 
Last,  which  was  dead  and  is  alive ; "  a  fitting  thought 
to  encourage  the  men  who  were  to  be  called  upon  to  die 
for  Him.  And,  in  like  manner,  the  words  of  our  text 
naturally  knit  themselves  with  the  previous  mention  of 
death  as  the  penalty  of  the  Smyrneans'  faithfulness. 

Now,  this  promise  is  sharply  distinguished  from  those 
to  the  other  Churches  by  two  peculiarities  :  one  that  it  is 
merely  negative,  whilst  all  the  rest  are  radiantly  positive  ; 

10 


THE   VICTOK's  crowns.— 11.  11 

the  other  that  there  is  no  mention  of  our  Lord  in  it, 
whilst  in  all  the  others  He  stands  forth  with  His  emphatic 
and  majestic  "  /  will  give  "  ;  "  /  will  write  upon  him  My 
new  Name  "  ;  "  /  will  make  him  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of 
My  God."  The  first  peculiarity  may  partially  account 
for  the  second,  because  the  Giver  is  naturally  more  pro- 
minent in  a  promise  of  positive  gifts,  than  in  one  of 
a  merely  negative  exemption.  But  another  reason  is  to 
be  found  for  the  omission  of  the  mention  of  our  Lord  in 
this  promise.  If  you  will  refer  to  the  verse  immediately 
preceding  my  text,  you  will  find  the  missing  positive 
promise  with  the  missing  reference  to  Jesus  Christ :  "  I 
will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life."  So  that  we  are  naturally 
led  to  link  together  both  these  statements  when  taking 
account  of  the  hopes  that  were  held  forth  to  animate 
the  Christians  of  Smyrna  in  the  prospect  of  persecution 
even  to  the  death  ;  and  we  have  to  consider  them  both 
in  conjunction  now.  I  think  I  shall  best  do  so  by 
simply  asking  you  to  look  at  these  two  things  :  the 
Christian  motive  contained  in  the  victor's  immunity  from 
a  great  evil,  and  the  Christian  motive  contained  in  the 
victor's  possession  of  a  great  good.  "  He  shall  not  be  hurt 
of  the  second  death."    "  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life." 

I.  The  Christian  motive  contained  in  the  victor's 
immunity  from  a  great  evil. 

Now,  that  solemn  and  thrilling  expression  "  the  second 
death  "  is  peculiar  to  this  book  of  the  Apocalypse.  The 
name  is  peculiar  ;  the  thing  is  common  to  all  the  New 
Testament  writers.  Here  it  comes  with  especial  appro- 
priateness, in  contrast  with  the  physical  death  which 
was  about  to  be  inflicted  upon  some  members  of  the 
Smyrnean  Church.     But  beyond  that  there  lies  in  the 


12  THE  victor's  crowns. — n. 

phrase  a  very  solemn  and  universally  applicable  meaning. 
I  do  not  feel,  dear  brethren,  that  such  a  thing  ought  to 
be  made  matter  of  pulpit  rhetoric.  The  bare  vagueness 
of  it  seems  to  me  to  shake  the  heart  a  great  deal  more 
than  any  weakening  expansion  of  it  that  we  can  give. 

But  yet,  let  me  say  one  word.  Then,  behind  that  grim 
figure,  the  shadow  feared  of  man  that  waits  for  all  at 
some  turn  of  their  road,  cloaked  and  shrouded,  there  rises 
a  still  grimmer  and  more  awful  form,  "  if  form  it  can  be 
called  which  form  hath  none."  There  is  something,  at 
the  back  of  physical  death,  which  can  lay  its  grip  upon 
the  soul  that  is  already  separated  from  the  body  ;  some- 
thing running  on  the  same  lines  somehow,  and  worthy 
to  bear  that  name  of  terror  and  disintegration  :  "  the 
second  death."  What  can  it  be  ?  Not  the  cessation  of 
conscious  existence  ;  that  is  never  the  meaning  of  death. 
But  lot  us  apply  the  key  which  opens  so  many  of  the 
locks  of  the  New  Testament  saying  about  the  future, 
that  the  true  and  deepest  meaning  of  death  is  separation 
from  Him  who  is  the  fountain  of  life,  and  in  a  very  deep 
sense  is  the  only  life  of  the  universe.  Separation  from 
God  ;  that  is  death.  What  touches  the  surface  of  mere 
bodily  life  is  but  a  faint  shadow  and  parable,  and  the 
second  death,  like  a  second  tier  of  mountains,  rises 
behind  and  above  it,  sterner  and  colder  than  the  lower 
hills  of  the  foreground.  What  desolation,  what  unrest, 
what  blank  misgivings,  what  peeling  off  of  capacities, 
faculties,  opportunities,  delights,  may  be  involved  in 
that  solemn  conception,  we  never  can  tell  here — God 
grant  that  we  may  never  know !  Like  some  sea- 
creature,  cast  high  and  dry  on  the  beach,  and  gasping 
out  its  pained  being,  the  men  that  are  separated  from 


THE   VICTOB's    crowns. — H.  13 

ijrod  die  whilst  they  live,  and  live  a  living  death.  The 
second  is  the  comparative  degree,  of  which  the  first  is 
the  positive. 

"Now,  note  again  that  immnnity  from  this  solemn 
fate  is  no  small  part  of  the  victor's  blessedness.  At  first 
sight  we  feel  as  if  the  mere  negative  promise  of  my 
text  stands  on  a  lower  level  than  what  I  have  called 
the  radiantly  positive  ones  in  the  other  letters  ;  bnt 
it  is  worthy  to  stand  beside  these.  Gather  them 
together,  and  think  of  how  manifold  and  glorious  tbe 
dim  suggestions  which  they  make  of  felicity  and  pro- 
gress are,  and  then  set  by  the  side  of  them  this  one  of 
our  text  as  worthy  to  stand  there.  To  eat  of  the  Tree 
of  Life  ;  to  have  power  over  the  nations  ;  to  rule  them 
with  a  rod  of  iron  ;  to  blaze  with  the  brightness  of  the 
morning  star  ;  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna  ;  to  bear  the 
new  name  known  only  to  those  who  receive  it ;  to  have 
that  name  confessed  before  the  Father  and  His  angels  ; 
to  be  a  pillar  in  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  ;  to  go  no 
more  out ;  and  to  sit  with  Christ  on  His  throne  : — these 
are  the  positive  promises,  along  with  which  this  barely 
negative  one  is  linked,  and  is  worthy  to  be  linked : 
"  He  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death." 

If  this  immunity  from  that  fate  is  fit  to  stand  in 
line  with  these  glimpses  of  an  inconceivable  glory,  how 
solemn  must  be  the  fate,  and  how  real  the  danger  of  our 
falling  into  it  I  Brethren,  in  this  day  it  has  become 
unfashionable  to  speak  of  that  future,  especially  of  its 
sterner  aspects.  The  dimness  of  the  brightest  revela- 
tions in  the  New  Testament,  the  unwillingness  to  accept 
it  as  the  source  of  certitude  with  regard  to  the  future, 
the  recoil  from  the  stern  severity  of  Divine  retribution, 


14  THE   VICTOB's   crowns. — U. 

the  exaggerated  and  hideous  gnise  in  which  that  great 
truth  was  often  presented  in  the  past,  the  abounding 
worldliness  of  this  day,  many  of  its  best  tendencies  and 
many  of  its  worst  ones  concur  in  making  some  of  us 
look  with  very  little  interest,  and  scarcely  credence,  at 
the  solemn  words  of  which  the  New  Testament  is  full. 
But  I,  for  my  part,  accept  them  ;  and  I  dare  not  but, 
in  such  proportion  to  the  rest  of  Revelation  as  seems  to 
me  to  be  right,  bring  them  before  you.  I  beseech  you, 
recognise  the  solemn  teaching  that  lies  in  this  thought, 
that  this  negative  promise  of  immunity  from  the  second 
death  stands  parallel  with  all  these  promises  of  felicity 
and  blessedness. 

Further,  note  that  such  immunity  is  regarded  here 
as  the  direct  outcome  of  the  victor's  conduct  and  char- 
acter. I  have  already  pointed  out  the  peculiarities 
marking  our  text.  The  omission  of  any  reference  to  our 
Lord  in  it  is  accounted  for,  as  suggested,  by  that  refer- 
ence occurring  in  the  immediately  preceding  context, 
but  it  may  also  be  regarded  as  suggesting — when  con- 
sidered in  contrast  with  the  other  promises,  where  He 
stands  forward  as  the  giver  of  heavenly  blessedness — 
that  that  future  condition  is  to  be  regarded  not  only  as 
retribution,  which  implies  the  notion  of  a  judge,  and 
a  punitive  or  rewarding  energy  on  his  part,  but  also 
as  being  the  necessary  result  of  the  earthly  life  that  is 
lived  ;  a  harvest  of  which  we  sow  the  seeds  here. 

Transient  deeds  consolidate  into  permanent  character. 
Beds  of  sandstone  rock,  thousands  of  feet  thick,  are  the 
sediment  dropped  from  vanished  seas,  or  borne  down 
by  long  dried-up  rivers.  The  actions  which  we  often 
80  unthinkingly  perform,  whatever  may  be  the  width 


THE  victob's  crowns.— n.  15 

and  the  permanency  of  their  effects  external  to  us, 
react  upon  ourselves,  and  tend  to  make  our  permanent 
bent  or  twist  or  character.  The  chalk  cliffs  at  Dover 
are  the  skeletons  of  millions  upon  millions  of  tiny 
organisms,  and  our  little  lives  are  built  up  by  the  re- 
currence of  transient  deeds,  which  leave  their  permanent 
marks  upon  us.  They  make  character,  and  character 
determines  position  yonder.  As  said  the  Apostle,  with 
tender  sparingness,  and  yet  with  profound  truth,  "he 
went  to  his  own  place"  wherever  that  was.  The 
surroundings  that  he  was  fitted  for  came  about  him, 
and  the  company  that  he  was  fit  for  associated  them- 
selves with  him.  So,  in  another  part  of  this  book, 
where  the  same  solemn  expression,  "  the  second  death," 
is  employed,  we  read,  "  These  shall  have  their  part 
in  .  .  .  the  second  death  "  :  the  lot  that  belongs  to  them. 
Character  and  conduct  determine  position.  However 
small  the  lives  here,  they  settle  the  far  greater  ones 
hereafter,  just  as  a  tiny  wheel  in  a  machine  may,  by 
cogs  and  other  mechanical  devices,  transmit  its  motion 
to  another  wheel  at  a  distance,  many  times  its  diameter. 
You  move  this  end  of  a  lever  through  an  arc  of  an  inch, 
and  the  other  end  will  move  through  an  arc  of  yards. 
The  little  life  here  determines  the  sweep  of  the  great  one 
that  is  lived  yonder.  The  victor  wears  his  past  conduct 
and  character,  if  I  may  so  say,  as  a  fireproof  garment, 
and  if  he  entered  the  very  furnace,  heated  seven  times 
hotter  than  before,  there  would  be  no  smell  of  fire  upon 
him.  "  He  that  overcometh  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the 
second  death." 

II.    Now  note,  secondly,  the   Christian   motive  con- 
tained in  the  victor's  reception  of  a  great  good. 


16  THE    VICTOK's   CKOWNS. — U. 

"  I  will  give  him  a  crown  of  life."  I  need  not  remind 
yon,  I  suppose,  that  this  metaphor  of  "  the  crown  "  is 
found  in  other  instructively  various  places  in  the  New 
Testament.  Paul,  for  instance,  speaks  of  his  own 
personal  hope  of  "  the  crown  of  righteousness."  James 
speaks,  as  does  the  letter  to  the  Smyrnean  Church,  of 
"  the  crown  of  life."  Peter  speaks  "  of  the  crown  of 
glory."  Paul,  in  another  place,  speaks  of  "the  crown 
incorruptible."  And  all  these  express  substantially  the 
one  idea.  There  may  be  a  question  as  to  whether  the 
word  employed  here  for  the  crown  is  to  be  taken  in 
its  strictly  literal  acceptation  as-  meaning,  not  a  kingly 
coronal,  but  a  garland.  But,  seeing  that,  although  that 
is  the  strict  meaning  of  the  word,  it  is  employed,  in  a 
subsequent  part  of  the  letter,  to  designate  what  must 
evidently  be  kingly  crowns — viz.,  in  the  fourth  chapter — 
there  seems  to  be  greater  probability  in  the  supposition 
that  we  are  warranted  in  including  under  the  symbolism 
here  both  the  aspects  of  the  crown  as  royal,  and  also  as 
laid  upon  the  brows  of  the  victors  in  the  games  or 
the  conflict.  I  venture  to  take  it  in  that  meaning. 
Substantially,  the  promise  is  the  same  as  that  which 
we  were  considering  in  the  previous  letter,  "  I  will  give 
him  to  eat  of  the  Tree  of  Life  "  ;  the  promise  of  life  in 
all  the  depth  and  fulness  and  sweep  of  that  great 
encyclopaedical  word.  But  it  is  life  considered  from  a 
special  point  of  view  that  is  set  forth  here. 

It  is  a  kingly  life.  Of  course,  that  notion  of  regality 
and  dominion,  as  the  prerogative  of  the  redeemed  and 
glorified  servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  for  ever  cropping 
up  in  this  book  of  the  Revelation.  And  you  remember 
now  our  Lord  has   set  the   example  of  its  use   whew 


THE  victor's   crowns. — H.  17 

He  said,  "  Have  thou  authority  over  ten  cities." 
What  may  lie  in  that  great  symbol  it  is  not  for  us 
to  say.  The  rule  over  ourselves,  over  circumstances, 
the  deliverance  from  the  tyranny  of  the  external,  the 
deliverance  from  the  slavery  of  the  body  and  its  lusts 
and  passions,  these  are  all  included.  The  man  that  can 
will  rightly,  and  can  do  completely  as  he  rightly  wills, 
that  man  is  a  king.  But  there  is  more  than  that. 
There  is  the  participation  in  wondrous,  and  for  us  in- 
conceivable, ways,  in  the  majesty  and  regality  of  the 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  Therefore  did  the 
crowned  Elders  before  the  throne  sing  a  new  song  to  the 
Lamb,  who  made  redeemed  men  out  of  every  tribe  and 
tongue,  to  be  to  God  a  kingdom,  and  priests  who  should 
reign  upon  the  earth. 

But,  brethren,  remember  that  this  conception  of  a 
kingly  life  is  to  be  interpreted,  according  to  Christ's 
own  teaching  of  that  wherein  royalty  in  His  kingdom 
consists.  For  heaven,  as  for  earth,  the  purpose  of 
dominion  is  service,  and  the  use  of  power  is  beneficence. 
'.'  He  that  is  chiefest  of  all,  let  him  be  servant  of  all," 
is  the  law  for  the  regalities  of  heaven  as  well  as  for  the 
lowliness  of  earth. 

That  life  is  a  triumphant  life.  The  crown  was  laid 
on  the  head  of  the  victor  in  the  games.  Think  of  the 
victor  as  he  went  back,  flushed  and  modest,  to  his 
village  away  up  on  the  slopes  of  some  of  the  mountain- 
chains  of  Greece.  With  what  a  tumult  of  acclaim  he 
would  be  hailed  I  If  we  do  our  work,  and  fight  our  fight 
down  here  as  we  ought,  we  shall  enter  into  the  great 
city  not  unnoticed,  not  uuwelcomed,  but  with  the 
praise  of  the  King  and  the  paeans  of  His   attendants. 

2 


18  THE  victor's   crowns. — H. 

"  I  will  confess  his  name  before   My  Father  and  the 
holy  angels." 

That  life  is  a  festal  life.  The  garlands  are  twined 
on  the  heated  brows  of  revellers,  and  the  fumes  of  the 
wine  and  the  closeness  of  the  chamber  soon  make  them 
wilt  and  droop.  This  Amaranthine  crown  fadeth  never. 
And  the  feast  expresses  for  us  the  felicities,  the 
abiding  satisfactions  without  satiety,  the  blessed  com- 
panionship, the  repose  which  belong  to  the  Crowned. 
Royalty,  triumph,  festal  goodness,  all  fused  together,  are 
incomplete,  but  they  are  not  useless  symbols.  May  we 
experience  their  fulfilment ! 

Brethren,  the  crown  is  promised  not  merely  to  the 
man  that  says,  "  I  have  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,"  but  to 
him  who  has  worked  out  his  faith  into  faithfulness, 
and  by  conduct  and  character  has  made  himself  capable 
of  the  felicities  of  the  heavens.  If  that  immortal  crown 
were  laid  upon  the  head  of  another,  it  would  be  a  crown 
of  thorns  ;  for  the  joys  of  that  future  require  the  fitness 
which  comes  from  the  apprenticeship  to  faith  and 
faithfulness  here  on  earth.  We  evangelical  preachers 
are  often  taunted  with  preaching  that  future  blessedness 
comes  as  the  result  of  the  simple  act  of  belief.  Yes  : 
but  only  if,  and  when,  the  simple  act  of  faith,  which 
is  more  than  belief,  is  wrought  out  in  the  loveliness 
of  faithfulness.  "  We  are  made  partakers  of  Christ,  if 
we  hold  fast  the  beginning  of  our  confidence  firm  unto 
the  end." 

Now,  dear  friends,  I  daresay  that  some  of  yon  may 
be  disposed  to  brush  aside  these  fears  and  hopes  as 
very  low  motives,  unworthy  to  be  appealed  to  ;  but  I 
Liinnot  so  regard  them.     I  know  that  the  appeal  to  fear 


THE  VICTOE's   CKOWNS. — H.  19 

is  directed  to  the  lower  order  of  sentiments,  but  it  is  a 
legitimate  motive.  It  is  meant  to  stir  us  up  to  gird 
ourselves  against  the  dangers  which  we  wisely  dread. 
And  I,  for  my  part,  believe  that  we  preachers  are  going 
aside  from  our  Pattern,  and  are  flinging  away  a  very 
powerfal  weapon,  in  the  initial  stages  of  religious 
experience,  if  we  are  afraid  to  bring  before  men's  hearts 
and  answering  consciences  the  solemn  facts  of  the 
future  which  Jesus  Christ  Himself  has  revealed  to  us. 
We  are  no  more  to  be  blamed  for  it  than  the  signal- 
man for  waving  his  red  flag.  And  I  fancy  that  there 
are  some  of  my  present  hearers  who  would  be  nearer 
the  love  of  God,  if  they  took  more  to  heart  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  and  of  His  judgment. 

Hope  is  surely  a  perfectly  legitimate  motive  to  appeal 
to.  We  are  not  to  be  good  because  we  thereby  escape 
hell  and  secure  heaven.  We  are  to  be  good,  because 
Jesus  Christ  wills  us  to  be,  and  has  won  us  to  love  Him, 
or  has  sought  to  win  us  to  love  Him,  by  His  great 
sacrifice  for  us.  But  that  being  the  basis,  men  can  be 
brought  to  build  upon  it  by  the  compulsion  of  fear  and 
by  the  attraction  of  hope.  And  that  being  the  deepest 
motive,  there  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  and  noble  sphere 
for  the  operation  of  these  two  other  lower  motives,  the 
consideration  of  the  personal  evils  that  attend  the 
opposite  course,  and  of  the  personal  good  that  follows 
from  cleaving  to  Him.  Am  I  to  be  told  that  Polycarp, 
Bishop  of  Smyrna,  who  went  to  his  martyrdom,  and 
was  "  faithful  unto  death,"  with  the  words  on  his  lips  : 
"  Eighty  and  six  years  have  I  served  Him,  and  He  has 
done  me  nothing  but  good  ;  how  shall  I  deny  my  King 
and  my  Saviour  ?  "  was  yielding  to  a  low  motive  when 


20  THE  victor's  crowns.-  -n. 

to  him  the  crown,  that  the  Master  promised  to  the 
Church  of  which  he  was  afterwards  bishop  floated  above 
the  head  that  was  soon  to  be  shorn  off,  and  on  whose 
blood-staiued  brows  it  was  then  to  fall  ?  Would  that 
we  had  more  of  such  low  motives  1  Would  that  we 
had  more  of  such  high  lives  as  fear  nothing  because 
they  "have  respect  to  the  recompense  of  the  reward," 
and  are  ready  for  service  or  martyrdom,  because  they 
hear  and  believe  the  crowned  Christ  saying  to  them  : 
"  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee 
a  crown  of  life." 


THE    VICTOR'S    CROWNS.— Ul. 

"  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna, 
and  will  give  him  a  white  stone,  and  in  the  stone  a  new  name  written. 
which  no  man  knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it." — Eev.  ii.  17. 

THE  Church  at  Pergamos,  to  which  this  promise  is 
addressed,  had  a  sharper  struggle  than  fell  to  the 
lot  of  the  two  Churches  whose  epistles  precede  this.  It 
was  set  "where  Satan's  seat  is."  Pergamos  was  a 
special  centre  of  heathen  worship,  and  already  the  blood 
of  a  faithful  martyr  had  been  shed  in  it.  The  severer 
the  struggle,  the  nobler  the  reward.  Consequently  the 
promise  given  to  this  militant  Church  surpasses,  in  some 
respects,  those  held  out  to  the  former  two.  They  were 
substantially  promised  that  life  eternal,  which  indeed 
includes  everything  ;  but  here  some  of  the  blessed 
contents  of  that  life  are  expanded  and  emphasised. 

There  is  a  threefold  promise  given :  "  the  hidden 
manna,"  "  the  white  stone,"  a  "  new  name "  written. 
The  first  and  the  last  of  these  are  evidently  the  most 
important.  They  need  little  explanation  ;  of  the  central 
one,  the  "  white  stone,"  a  bewildering  variety  of  inter- 
pretations— none  of  them,  as  it  seems  to  me,  satisfactory 
— have  been  suggested.  Possibly  there  may  be  an 
allusion  to  the  ancient  custom  of  dropping  the  votes  of  the 

21 


22  THE  victor's  crowns. — in. 

judges  into  an  urn — a  white  pebble  meaning  innocence 
and  acquittal ;  black  meaning  guilty — just  as  we,  under 
somewhat  similar  circumstances,  talk  about  "black- 
balling." But  the  objection  to  that  interpretation  lies  in 
the  fact  that  the  "  white  stone  "  of  our  text  is  given  to 
the  person  concerned,  and  not  deposited  elsewhere. 
There  may  be  an  allusion  to  a  practice  which  antiquarians 
have  hunted  out,  of  conferring  upon  the  victors  in  the 
games  a  little  tile  with  a  name  inscribed  upon  it,  which 
gave  admission  to  the  public  festivals.  But  all  the 
explanations  are  so  doubtful  that  one  hesitates  to  accept 
any  of  them.  There  remains  one  other  alternative, 
which  seems  to  me  to  be  suggested  by  the  very  language 
of  the  text — viz.,  that  the  "  white  stone  "  is  here  named 
— with  possibly  some  subsidiary  thought  of  innocence 
and  purity — merely  as  the  vehicle  for  the  name.  And 
so  I  dismiss  it  from  further  consideration,  and  concentrate 
our  thoughts  on  the  remaining  two  promises. 

I.  We  have  the  victor's  food,  the  manna. 

That  seems,  at  first  sight,  a  somewhat  infelicitous 
symbol,  because  manna  was  wilderness  food.  But  that 
characteristic  is  not  to  be  taken  into  account.  Manna, 
though  it  fell  in  the  wilderness,  came  from  heaven,  and 
it  is  the  heavenly  food  that  is  suggested  by  the  symbol. 
When  the  warrior  passes  from  the  fight  into  the 
city,  the  food  which  came  down  from  heaven  will  bi- 
given  to  him  in  fulness.  It  is  a  beautiful  thought 
that,  as  soon  as  the  man  "  spent  with  changing  blows," 
and  weary  with  conflict,  enters  the  land  of  peace, 
there  is  a  table  spread  for  him  ;  not,  as  before,  in  "  the 
presence  of  his  enemies,"  but  in  the  presence  of  the 
companions  of  his  repose.     One  moment  hears  the  din  of 


THE   victor's    CEOWNS. — HI.  23 

the  battle-field,  the  next  moment  feels  the  refreshment  of 
the  heavenly  manna, 

Bnt  now  there  can  be  little  need  for  dealing,  by  way 
of  exposition,  with  this  symbol.  Let  us  rather  try  to 
lay  it  upon  our  hearts. 

Now  the  first  thing  that  it  plainly  suggests  to  us  is 
the  absolute  satisfaction  of  all  the  hunger  of  the  heart. 
It  is  possible,  and  for  those  that  overcome  it  will  one 
day  be  actual  experience,  that  a  man  shall  have  every- 
thing that  he  wishes  the  moment  that  he  wishes  it. 
Here  we  have  to  suppress  desires,  sometimes  because 
they  are  illegitimate  and  wrong,  sometimes  because  cir- 
cumstances sternly  forbid  their  indulgence.  There,  to 
desire  will  be  to  have,  and  partly  by  the  rectifying  of 
the  appetite,  partly  by  the  fulness  of  the  supply,  there 
will  be  no  painful  sense  of  vacuity,  and  no  clamouring  of 
tl^e  unsubdued  heart  for  good  that  is  beyond  its  reach. 
They— and  you  and  I  may  be  amongst  them,  and  so  we 
may  say  "  we  " — "  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst 
any  more."  Oh,  brethren  1  to  us  who  are  driven  into 
activity  by  desires,  half  of  which  go  to  water  and  are 
never  fulfilled — to  us  who  know  what  it  is  to  try  to 
tame  down  the  hungering,  yelping  wishings  and  longings 
of  our  souls — to  us  who  have  so  often  spent  our  "  money 
for  that  which  is  not  bread,  and  our  labour  for  that 
which  satisfieth  not  "  it  ought  to  be  a  Gospel :  "  I  will 
give  him  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna."  Is  it  such  to 
you  ?  Do  you  believe  it  possible,  and  are  you  addressing 
yourselves  to  make  the  fulfilment  of  it  actual  in  your 
case? 

Then  there  is  the  other  plain  thing  suggested  here, 
that  that  satisfaction  does  not  dull  the  edge  of  appetite 


24  THE  victor's   crowns. — ^IIL 

or  desire.  Bodily  hunger  is  fed,  is  replete,  wants  nothing 
more  until  the  lapse  of  time  and  digestion  have  inter- 
vened. But  it  is  not  so  with  the  loftiest  satisfactions. 
There  are  some  select,  noble,  blessed  desires  even  here, 
concerning  which  we  know  that  the  more  we  have,  the 
more  we  hunger  with  a  hunger  which  has  no  pain  in  it, 
but  is  only  the  greatened  capacity  for  greater  enjoyment. 
You  that  know  what  happy  love  is  know  what  that 
means — a  satisfaction  which  never  approaches  satiety,  a 
hunger  which  has  in  it  no  gnawing.  And  in  the  loftiest 
and  most  perfect  of  all  realms,  that  co-existence  of 
perfect  fruition  and  perfect  desire  will  be  still  more 
wondrously  and  blessedly  manifest.  At  each  moment 
the  more  we  have,  the  wider  will  our  hearts  be  expanded 
by  possession,  and  the  wider  they  are  expanded  the  more 
will  they  be  capable  of  receiving,  and  the  more  they 
are  capable  of  receiving,  the  more  deep  and  full  and 
blessed  and  all-covering  will  be  the  inrush  of  the  river 
of  the  water  of  life.  Satisfaction  without  satiety,  food 
which  leaves  him  blessedly  appetised  for  larger  bestow- 
ments,  belong  to  the  victor. 

Another  thing  to  be  noticed  here  is  what  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  point  out  in  the  previous  promises : 
"  I  will  give  him."  Do  you  remember  our  Lord's  own 
wonderful  words  :  "  Blessed  are  those  servants,  whom  the 
Lord  when  He  cometh  shall  find  watching  :  verily  I  say 
unto  you,  that  He  shall  gird  Himself,  and  shall  come  forth 
and  serve  them  "  ?  The  victor  is  seated  at  the  board,  and 
the  Prince,  as  in  some  earthly  banq^uet  to  a  victorious 
army.  Himself  moves  up  and  down  amongst  the  tables, 
and  supplies  the  wants  of  the  guests.  There  was  an  old 
Jewish  tradition,  which  perhaps  may  have  influenced  the 


THE   victor's    OROWNS. — HI.  26 

form  of  this  promise,  to  the  effect  that  the  Messiah,  when 
He  came,  would  bring  again  to  the  people  the  gift  of  the 
manna,  and  men  should  once  more  eat  angels'  food. 
Whether  there  is  any  allusion  to  that  poetic  fancy  or  no  in 
the  words  of  my  text,  the  reality  infinitely  transcends  it. 
Christ  Himself  bestows  upon  His  servants  the  sustenance 
of  their  spirits  in  the  realm  above.  But  there  is  more 
than  that.  Christ  is  not  only  the  Giver,  but  He  is 
Himself  the  Food.  I  believe  that  the  deepest  meaning 
of  this  sevenfold  claster  of  jewels,  the  promises  to  these 
seven  Churches,  is  in  each  case  Christ.  He  is  the  Tree 
of  Life  ;  He  is  the  Crown  of  Life,  He  is — as  well  aw 
gives — "  the  hidden  manna."  You  will  remember  how 
He  Himself  gives  us  this  interpretation  when,  in  answer 
to  the  Jewish  taunt,  "  Our  fathers  did  eat  manna  in  the 
wilderness.  What  dost  Thou  work  ?  "  He  said,  "  I  am 
that  Bread  of  God  that  came  down  from  heaven." 

So,  then,  once  more,  we  come  back  to  the  all-important 
teaching  that,  whatever  be  the  glories  of  the  perfected 
flower  and  fruit  in  heaven,  the  germ  and  root  of  it  is 
already  here.  The  man  that  lives  upon  the  Christ  by 
faith,  love,  obedience,  imitation,  communion,  aspiration, 
here  on  earth,  has  already  the  earnest  of  that  feast. 
No  doubt  there  will  be  aspects  and  sweetnesses  and 
savours  and  sustenance  in  the  heavenly  form  of  our 
possession  of,  and  living  on,  Him,  which  we  here  on  earth 
know  nothing  about.  But,  no  doubt  also,  the  beginning 
and  positive  degree  of  all  these  sweetnesses  and  savours 
and  sustenances  yet  to  be  revealed  is  found  in  the 
experience  of  the  man  who  has  listened  to  the  cry  of 
that  loving  voice,  "Eat,  and  your  souls  shall  live"; 
and  has  taken  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  the  living  person, 


26  THE  victor's  ckowns. — m. 

to  be  not  only  the  source  but  the  nourishment  of  his 
spiritual  life. 

So,  brethren,  it  is  of  no  use  to  pretend  to  ourselves 
that  we  should  like — as  they  put  it  in  bald  popular 
language — to  "  go  to  heaven,"  unless  we  are  using  and 
relishing  that  of  heaven  which  is  here  to-day.  If  you 
do  not  like  the  earthly  form  of  feeding  upon  Jesus  Christ, 
which  is  trusting  Him,  giving  your  heart  to  Him,  obey- 
ing Him,  thinking  about  Him,  treading  in  His  footsteps, 
you  would  not  like,  you  would  like  less,  the  heavenly 
form  of  that  feeding  upon  Him.  If  you  would  rather 
have  the  strong-smelling  garlic  and  the  savoury  leeks — 
to  say  nothing  about  the  swine's  trough  and  the  husks 
— than  "this  light  bread,"  the  "angels'  food,"  which 
your  palates  cannot  stand  and  your  stomachs  cannot 
digest,  you  could  not  swallow  it  if  it  were  put  into  your 
lips  when  you  get  beyond  the  grave  ;  and  you  would 
not  like  it  if  you  could.  Christ  forces  this  manna  into 
no  man's  mouth ;  but  Christ  gives  it  to  all  who  desire 
it  and  are  fit  for  it.  As  is  the  man's  appetite,  so  is  the 
man's  food  ;  and  so  is  the  life  that  results  therefrom. 

II.  Note  the  victor's  new  name. 

I  have  often  had  occasion  to  point  out  to  you  that 
Scripture  attaches,  in  accordance  with  Eastern  habit, 
large  importance  to  names,  which  are  intended  to  be 
significant  of  character,  or  circumstances,  or  parental 
hopes  or  desires.  So  that,  both  in  reference  to  God  and 
man,  names  come  to  be  the  condensed  expression  of  the 
character  and  the  personality.  When  we  read,  "  I  will 
give  him  a  stone,  on  which  there  is  a  new  name  written,'* 
we  infer  that  the  main  suggestion  made  in  that  promise 
is   of  a  change  in  the    self,   something    new    in    the 


THE  victor's  CltOWi^S. — m.  27 

personality  and  the  character.  I  need  not  dwell  upon 
this,  for  we  have  no  material  by  which  to  expand  into 
detail  the  greatness  of  the  promise.  I  would  only 
remind  you  of  how  we  are  taught  to  believe  that  the 
dropping  away  of  the  corporeal,  and  removal  from  this 
present  scene,  carries  with  it,  in  the  case  of  those  who 
have  here  on  earth  begun  to  walk  with  Christ,  and  to 
become  citizens  of  the  spiritual  realm,  changes  great, 
ineffable,  and  all  tending  in  the  one  direction  of  making 
the  servants  more  fully  like  their  Lord.  What  new 
capacities  may  be  evolved  by  the  mere  fact  of  losing  the 
limitations  of  the  bodily  frame  ;  what  new  points  of 
contact  with  a  new  universe ;  what  new  analogues  of 
what  we  here  call  our  senses,  and  means  of  per- 
ception of  the  external  world,  may  be  the  accompani- 
ments of  the  disembarrassment  from  "  the  earthly  house 
of  this  tabernacle,"  we  dare  not  dream.  We  could  not, 
if  we  were  told,  rightly  understand.  But,  surely,  if  the 
tenant  is  taken  from  a  clay  hut  and  set  in  a  Koyal  house, 
eternal,  not  made  with  hands,  its  windows  must  be 
wider  and  more  transparent,  and  there  must  be  an 
inrush  of  wondrous! y  more  brilliant  light  into  the 
chambers. 

But  whatsoever  be  these  changes,  they  are  changes 
that  repose  upon  that  which  has  been  in  the  past.  And 
so  the  second  thought  that  is  suggested  by  this  new 
name  is  that  these  changes  are  the  direct  results  of  the 
victor's  course.  Both  in  old  times  and  in  the  peerage  of 
England  you  will  find  names  of  conquerors,  by  land  or 
by  water,  who  carry  in  their  designations  and  transmit 
to  their  descendants  the  memorial  of  their  victories  in 
their  very  titles.      In   like   manner  as   a    Scipio    was 


28  THE   victor's    crowns. — III. 

called  Africanus,  as  a  Jervis  became  Lord  St.  Vincent, 
so  the  victor's  "  new  name  "  is  thie  concentration  and 
memorial  of  the  victor's  conquest.  And  what  we  have 
wrought  and  fought  here  on  earth  we  carry  with  us,  as 
the  basis  of  the  changes  from  glory  to  glory  which  shall 
come  in  the  heavens.  "  They  rest  from  their  labours  ; 
their  works  do  follow  them,"  and,  gathering  behind  the 
laurelled  victor,  attend  him  as  he  ascends  the  hill  of 
the  Lord. 

But  once  more  we  come  to  the  thought  that  whatever 
there  may  be  of  change  in  the  future,  the  main  direction 
of  the  character  remains,  and  the  consolidated  issues  of 
the  transient  deeds  of  earth  remain,  and  the  victor's 
name  is  the  summing  up  of  the  victor's  life. 

But,  further,  Christ  gives  the  name.  He  changed  the 
names  of  His  disciples.  Simon  He  called  Cephas,  James 
and  John  He  called  "  Sons  of  Thunder."  The  act 
claimed  authority,  and  designated  a  new  relation  to  Him. 
Both  these  ideas  are  conveyed  in  the  promise :  "  I  will 
give  him  ...  a  new  name  written."  Only,  brethren, 
remember  that  the  transformation  keeps  true  to  the  line 
of  direction  begun  here,  and  the  process  of  change  has 
to  be  commenced  on  earth.  They  who  win  the  new  name 
of  heaven  are  they  of  whom  it  would  be  truly  said,  while 
they  bore  the  old  name  of  earth,  "  If  any  man  be  in 
Christ  he  is  a  new  creature."  "  Old  things  are  passed 
away  ;  behold,  all  things  are  become  new." 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  mystery  of  both  the  food  and 
the  name. 

"  I  will  give  him  the  hidden  manna  ...  a  new  name 
.  .  .  which  no  man  knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it." 
Now,  we  all  know  that  the  manna  was  laid  up  in  the 


THE   VIOTOK's    crowns. — HL  ^9 

Ark,  beneath  the  Shekinah,  within  the  curtain  of  the 
holiest  place.  And,  besides  that,  there  was  a  Jewish 
tradition  that  the  Ark  and  its  contents,  which  dis- 
appeared after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  destruction 
of  the  first  Temple,  had  been  buried  by  the  prophet 
Jeremiah,  and  lay  hidden  away  somewhere  on  the  sacred 
soil,  until  Messiah  should  return.  There  may  be  an 
allusion  to  that  here,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose 
it.  The  pot  of  manna  lay  in  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant, 
of  which  we  hear  in  another  part  of  the  symbolism  in 
this  book,  within  the  veil  in  the  holiest  of  all.  And 
Christ  gives  the  victor  to  partake  of  that  sacred  and 
secret  food.  The  name  which  is  given,  "  no  man 
knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it."  Both  symbols 
point  to  the  one  thought,  the  impossibility  of  knowing 
until  we  possess  and  experience. 

That  impossibility  besets  all  the  noblest,  highest, 
purest,  Divinest  emotions  and  possessions  of  earth. 
Poets  have  sung  of  love  and  sorrow  from  the  beginning 
of  time  ;  but  men  must  love  to  know  what  love  means. 
Every  woman  has  heard  about  the  sweetness  of 
maternity,  but  not  till  the  happy  mother  holds  her 
infant  to  her  breast  does  she  understand  it.  And  so  we 
may  talk  till  Doomsday,  and  yet  it  would  remain  true 
that  we  must  eat  the  manna,  and  look  upon  the 
white  stone  for  ourselves,  before  we  can  adequately 
comprehend. 

Since,  then,  experience  alone  admits  to  the  knowledge, 
how  vulgar,  how  futile,  how  absolutely  destructive  of 
the  very  purpose  which  they  are  intended  to  subserve, 
are  all  the  attempts  of  men  to  forecast  that  ineffable 
glory.     It  is  too  great  to  be  understood.     The  mountains 


30  THE  victor's  crowns. — ^m. 

that  ring  ub  round  keep  the  secret  well  of  the  fair  lands 
beyond.  There  are  questions  that  bleeding  hearts  some- 
times ask,  questions  which  prurient  curiosity  more  often 
ask,  and  which  foolish  people  to-day  are  taking  illegiti- 
mate means  of  solving,  about  that  future  life,  which  are 
all  left — though  some  of  them  might  conceivably  have 
been  answered — in  silence.  Enough  for  us  to  listen  to 
the  voice  that  says,  "  In  My  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions  " — room  for  you  and  me — "  if  it  were  not  so 
I  would  have  told  you."  For  the  silence  is  eloquent. 
The  curtain  is  the  picture.  The  impossibility  of  telling 
is  the  token  of  the  greatness  of  the  thing  to  be  told. 
Hope  needs  but  little  yarn  to  weave  her  web  with. 
I  believe  that  the  dimness  is  part  of  the  power  of  that 
heavenly  prospect.  Let  us  be  reticent  before  it.  Let  us 
remember  that,  though  our  knowledge  is  small  and  our 
eyes  dim,  Christ  knows  all,  and  we  shall  be  with  Him  ; 
and  so  say,  with  no  sense  of  pained  ignorance,  or  un- 
satisfied curiosity,  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be,  but  we  know  that  when  He  shall  appear  we 
shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 
Cannot  our  hearts  add,  "It  is  enough  for  the  servant 
that  he  be  as  his  master "  ? 

An  old  commentator  on  this  verse  says,  "  Wouldst 
thou  know  what  manner  of  new  name  thou  shalt  bear  ? 
Overcome.  It  is  vain  for  thee  to  ask  beforehand.  Here- 
after thou  shalt  soon  see  it  written  on  the  white  stone." 

Help  us,  0  Lord,  to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  in 
the  sure  confidence  that  Thou  wilt  receive  us,  and  refresh 
us,  and  renew  us. 


TJBLE   VICTOK'S   CROWNS.— IV. 

"  He  that  overcometb,  and  keepeth  My  works  unto  the  end,  to  hiin 
will  I  give  power  over  the  nations :  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  roi . 
of  iron  ;  as  the  vessels  of  a  potter  shall  they  be  broken  to  shivers : 
even  as  I .  received  of  My  Father.  And  I  will  give  him  the  morn- 
ing star."— Kev.  ii.  26-28. 

THIS  promise  to  the  victors  in  Thyatira  differs  from 
the  preceding  ones  in  several  remarkable  respects. 
If  you  will  observe,  the  smnmons  to  give  ear  to  "  what 
the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches  "  'precedes  the  promises 
in  the  previous  letters  ;  here  it  follows  that  promise, 
and  that  order  is  observed  in  the  three  subsequent 
epistles.  Now,  the  structure  of  all  these  letters  is  too 
careful  and  artistic  to  allow  of  the  supposition  that  the 
change  ,is  arbitrary  or  accidental.  There  must  be  some 
significance  in  it,  but  I  do  not  profess  to  be  ready  with 
the  explanation,  and  I  prefer  acknowledging  perplexity 
to  pretending  enlightenment. 

Then  there  is  another  remarkable  peculiarity  of  this 
letter — viz.,  the  expansion  which  is  given  to  the 
designation  of  the  victor  as  "  He  that  overcometh  and 
keepeth  My  works  unto  the  end^  Probably  not  un- 
connected with  that  expansion  is  the  other  peculiarity 
of  the  promise  here,  as  compared  with  its  precursors — 
viz.,  that  they  all  regard  simply  the  individual  victor 
and  promise  to  him  "  partaking  of  the  tree  of  life  "  ;  a 

31 


32  THE   victor's   crowns. — IV. 

"  crown  of  life  "  ;  immunity  from  "  the  second  death  "  ; 
'^  the  hidden  manna  "  ;  the  "  white  stone  "  ;  and  the 
"  new  name  written  "  ;  which,  like  all  the  rest  of  the 
promises  there,  belonged  to  Himself  alone  ;  but  here 
the  field  is  widened,  and  we  have  others  brought  in 
on  whom  the  victor  is  to  exercise  an  influence.  So, 
then,  we  enter  upon  a  new  phase  of  conceptions  of 
that  future  life  in  these  words,  which  not  only  dwell 
upon  the  sustenance,  the  repose,  the  glory  that  belong 
to  the  man  himself,  but  look  upon  him  as  still  an 
instrument  in  Christ's  hands,  and  an  organ  for  carrying 
out,  by  His  activities,  Christ's  purposes  in  the  worlds. 
So,  then,  I  want  you  to  look  with  me  very  simply 
at  the  ideas  suggested  by  these  words. 

I.  We  have  the  victor's  authority. 

Now,  the  promise  in  my  text  is  moulded  by  a  remem- 
brance of  the  great  words  of  the  second  psalm.  That 
psalm  stands  at  the  beginning  of  the  Psalter  as  a  kind  of 
prelude  ;  and,  in  conjunction  with  its  companion  psalm, 
the  first,  is  a  summing  up  of  the  two  great  factors  in  the 
religious  life  of  the  Hebrews — viz.,  the  blessedness  in  the 
keeping  of  the  law,  and  the  brightness  of  the  hope  of 
the  Messiah.  The  psalm  in  question  deals  with  that 
Messianic  hope  under  the  symbols  of  an  earthly  con- 
quering monarch,  and  sets  forth  His  dominion  as  esta- 
blished throughout  the  whole  earth.  And  our  letter 
brings  this  marvellous  thought,  that  the  spirits  of  just 
men  made  perfect  are,  somehow  or  other,  associated 
with  Him  in  that  campaign  of  conquest. 

Now,  there  is  much  in  these  words  which,  of  course, 
it  is  idle  for  us  to  attempt  to  expand  or  expound.  We 
can  only  wait,  as  we  gaze  upon  the  dim  brightness,  for 


THE  victor's  crowns. — IV.  33 

experience  to  nnlock  the  mystery.  But  there  is  alsc 
much  which,  if  we  will  reverently  ponder  it,  may  stimu- 
late us  to  brave  conflict  and  persistent  diligence  in 
keeping  Christ's  commandments.  I,  for  my  part, 
believe  that  Scripture  is  the  only  source  of  such  know- 
ledge as  we  have  of  the  future  life  ;  and  I  believe,  too, 
that  the  knowledge,  such  as  it  is,  which  we  derive  from 
Scripture  is  knowledge,  and  can  be  absolutely  trusted. 
And  so,  though  I  abjure  all  attempts  at  rhetorical 
setting  forth  of  the  details  of  this  mysterious  symbol, 
I  would  lay  it  upon  our  hearts.  It  is  not  the  less 
powerful  because  it  is  largely  inconceivable  ;  and  the 
mystery,  the  darkness,  the  dimness,  may  be,  and  are 
part  of  the  revelation  and  of  the  light.  "  There  was  the 
hiding  of  His  power.'* 

And  so,  notice  that  whatever  may  be  the  specific 
contents  of  such  a  promise  as  this,  the  general  form 
of  it  is  in  full  harmony  with  the  words  of  our  Lord 
whilst  He  was  on  earth.  Twice  over,  according  to  the 
Gospel  narratives — once  in  connection  with  Peter's 
foolish  question,  "  What  shall  we  have  therefore  ?  "  and 
once  in  a  still  more  sacred  connection,  at  the  table  on 
the  eve  of  Calvary — our  Lord  gave  His  trembling  dis- 
ciples this  great  promise  :  "  In  the  regeneration,  when 
the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,  ye 
also  shall  sit  on  twelve  thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel."  Make  all  allowance  that  you  like  for  the 
vesture  of  symbolism,  the  reality  that  lies  beneath  is 
that  Jesus  Christ,  the  Truth,  has  pledged  Himself  to  this, 
that  His  servants  shall  be  associated  with  Him  in  the 
activity  of  His  royalty.  And  the  same  great  thought, 
which  we  only  spoil  when  we  try  to  tear  apart  the  petals 

3 


34  THE  victok's  crowns. — IV. 

which  remain  closed  until  the  sun  shall  open  them, 
underlies  the  twin  parables  of  the  pounds  and  the 
talents,  in  regard  to  each  of  which  we  have,  "  Thou  hast 
been  faithful  over  a  few  things  ;  I  will  make  thee  ruler 
over  many  things  ; "  and,  linked  along  with  the  promise 
of  authority,  the  assurance  of  union  with  the  Master, 
"  Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."  So  this  book 
of  the  Revelation  is  only  following  in  the  footsteps  and 
expanding  the  hints  of  Christ's  own  teaching  when  it 
triumphs  in  the  thought  that  we  are  made  kings  and 
priests  to  God  ;  when  it  points  onwards  to  a  future 
wherein — we  know  not  how,  but  we  know,  if  we  believe 
Him  when  He  speaks,  that  it  shall  be  so — they  shall 
reign  with  Him  for  ever  and  ever. 

My  text  adds  further  the  image  of  a  conquering  cam- 
paign, of  a  sceptre  of  iron  crushing  down  antagonism,  of 
banded  opposition  broken  into  shivers,  "  as  a  potter's 
vessel"  dashed  upon  a  pavement  of  marble.  And  it 
says  that  in  that  final  conflict  and  final  conquest  they 
that  have  passed  into  the  rest  of  God,  and  have  dwelt 
with  Christ,  shall  be  with  Him,  the  armies  of  heaven 
following  Him,  clad  in  white  raiment  pure  and  glistening, 
and  with  Him  subduing,  ay !  and  converting  into  loyal 
love  the  antagonisms  of  earth.  I  abjure  all  attempts  at 
millenarian  prophecy,  but  I  point  to  this,  that  all  the 
New  Testament  teaching  converges  upon  this  one  point, 
that  the  Christ  who  came  to  die  shall  come  again  to 
reign,  and  that  He  shall  reign,  and  His  servants  with 
Him.  That  is  enough  ;  and  that  is  all.  For  all  the 
rest  is  conjecture  and  fancy,  and  sometimes  folly  ;  and 
details  minimise,  and  do  not  magnify,  the  great,  unde- 
tailed, magnificent  fact. 


THE  victok's  crowns. — IV.  35 

But  all  the  other  promises  deal  not  with  sometliing  in 
the  remoter  future,  but  with  something  that  begins  to  take 
effect  the  moment  the  dust,  and  confusion,  and  garments 
rolled  in  blood,  of  the  battle-field  are  swept  away.  At 
one  instant  the  victors  are  fighting,  at  the  next  they  are 
partaking  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  and  on  their  locks  lies  the 
crown,  and  their  happy  lips  are  feeding  upon  "the 
hidden  manna."  And  so,  I  think,  that  though,  no  doubt, 
the  main  stress  of  the  promise  of  authority  here  points 
onwards,  as  our  Lord  Himself  has  taught  us,  to  the  time 
of  "  the  regeneration,  when  the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  on 
the  throne  of  His  glory,"  the  incidence  of  the  promise  is 
not  to  be  exclusively  confined  thereto.  There  must  be 
something  in  the  present  for  the  blessed  dead,  as  well  as 
for  them  in  the  future.  And  this  is,  that  they  are  united 
with  Jesus  Christ  in  His  present  activities,  and  through 
Him,  and  in  Him,  and  with  Him,  are  even  now  serving 
Him.  The  servant,  when  he  dies,  and  has  been  fitted  for 
it,  enters  at  once  on  his  government  of  the  ten  cities. 

Thus  this  promise  of  my  text,  in  its  deepest  meaning, 
corresponds  with  the  deepest  needs  of  a  man's  nature. 
For  we  can  never  be  at  rest  unless  we  are  at  work  ;  and 
a  heaven  of  doing  nothing  is  a  heaven  of  ennui  and 
weariness.  Whatever  sneers  may  have  been  cast  at  the 
Christian  conception  of  the  future,  which  find  vindica- 
tion, one  is  sorry  to  say,  in  many  popular  representations 
and  sickly  bits  of  hymns,  the  New  Testament  notion  of 
what  that  future  life  is  to  be  is  noble  with  all  energy, 
and  fruitful  with  all  activity,  and  strenuous  with  all 
service.  This  promise  of  my  text  comes  in  to  supple- 
ment the  three  preceding.  They  were  addressed  to  the 
legitimate,   wearied  longings   for   rest    and  fulness  of 


36  THE  victoe's  crowns. — IV. 

satisfaction  for  oneself.  This  is  addressed  to  the  deeper 
and  nobler  longing  for  larger  service.  And  the  words  of 
my  text,  whatever  dim  glory  they  may  partially  reveal, 
as  accraing  to  the  victor  in  the  future,  do  declare  that, 
when  he  passes  beyond  the  grave,  there  will  be  waiting 
for  him  nobler  work  to  do  than  any  that  he  ever  has 
done  here. 

But  let  us  not  forget  that  all  this  access  of  power  and 
enlargement  of  opportunity  are  a  consequence  of  Christ's 
royalty  and  Christ's  conquering  rule.  That  is  to  say, 
whatever  we  have  in  the  future  we  have  because  we  are 
knit  to  Him,  and  all  our  service  there,  as  all  our  blessed- 
ness here,  flows  from  our  union  with  that  Lord.  So  when 
He  says,  as  in  the  words  that  I  have  already  quoted,  that 
His  servants  shall  sit  on  thrones,  He  presents  Himself 
as  on  the  central  throne.  The  authority  of  the  steward 
over  the  ten  cities  is  but  a  consequence  of  the  servant's 
entrance  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord.  Whatever  there  lies 
in  the  heavens,  the  germ  of  it  all  is  this,  that  we  are  as 
Christ,  so  closely  identified  with  Him  that  we  are  like  Him, 
and  share  in  all  His  possessions.  He  says  to  each  of  us, 
"  All  Mine  is  thine."  He  has  taken  part  of  our  flesh 
and  blood  that  we  may  share  in  His  Spirit.  The  bride 
is  endowed  with  the  wealth  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the 
crowns  that  are  placed  on  the  heads  of  the  redeemed 
are  the  crown  which  Christ  Himself  has  received  as  the 
reward  of  His  Cross — "  even  as  I  have  received  of  My 
Father." 

II.  Note  the  victor's  starry  splendour. 

The  second  symbol  of  my  text  is  difficult  of  interpre- 
tation, like  the  first :  "  I  will  give  him  the  morning 
star."     Now,  no  doubt,  throughout  Scripture  a  star  is  a 


THE  victok's  crowns. — IV.  37 

symbol  of  royal  dominion ;  and  many  would  propose 
so  to  interpret  it  in  the  present  case.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  whilst  that  explanation — which  makes  the 
second  part  of  onr  promise  simply  identical  with  the 
former,  though  under  a  different  garb — does  justice  to 
one  part  of  the  symbol,  it  entirely  omits  the  other. 
For  the  emphasis  is  here  laid  on  "  morning  "  rather  than 
on  "  star."  It  is  "  the  morning  star,"  not  any  star  that 
blazes  in  the  heavens,  that  is  set  forth  here  as  a 
symbolical  representation  of  the  victor's  condition. 
Then  another  false  scent,  as  it  were,  on  which  interpre- 
tations have  gone,  seems  to  me  to  be  that,  taking  into 
account  the  fact  that  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Revelation 
our  Lord  is  Himself  described  as  "the  bright  and 
morning  star,"  they  bring  this  promise  down  simply 
to  mean  "  I  will  give  him  Myself."  Now,  though  it 
is  quite  true  that,  in  the  deepest  of  all  views,  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  is  the  gift  as  well  as  the  giver  of  all 
these  seven-fold  promises,  yet  the  propriety  of  repre- 
sentation seems  to  me  to  forbid  that  He  should  here 
say,  "  I  will  give  them  Myself  I  " 

So  I  think  we  must  fall  back  upon  what  any  touch  of 
poetic  imagination  would  at  once  suggest  to  be  the 
meaning  of  the  promise,  that  it  is  the  dawning  splendour 
of  that  planet  of  hope  and  morning,  the  harbinger  of 
day,  which  we  are  to  lay  hold  of.  Hebrew  prophets,  long 
before,  had  spoken  of  Lucifer,  "  light-bringer,"  "  the  son 
of  the  morning."  Many  a  poet  sang  of  it  before  Milton 
with  his 

"Hesperus,  that  led  the  starry  host, 
Eode  brightest." 

So  that  I  think  we  are  just  to  lay  hold  of  the  thought 


38  THE  victor's  crowns. — IV. 

that  the  starry  splendour,  the  beanty  and  the  lustre  that 
will  be  poured  upon  the  victor  is  that  which  is  expressed 
by  this  symbol  here.  What  that  lustre  will  consist 
in  it  becomes  us  not  to  say.  That  future  keeps  its 
secret  well,  but  that  it  shall  be  the  perfecting  of  human 
nature  up  to  the  most  exquisite  and  consummate  height 
of  which  it  is  capable,  and  the  enlargement  of  it  beyond 
all  that  human  experience  here  can  conceive,  we  may 
peaceably  anticipate  and  quietly  trust. 

Only,  note,  the  advance  here  on  the  previous  promises 
is  as  conspicuous  as  in  the  former  part  of  this  great 
promise.  There  the  Christian  man's  influence  and 
authority  were  set  forth  under  the  emblem  of  regal 
dominion.  Here  they  are  set  forth  under  the  emblem 
of  lustrous  splendour.  It  is  the  spectators  that  see 
the  glory  of  the  beam  that  comes  from  the  star.  And 
this  promise,  like  the  former,  implies  that  in  that 
future  there  will  be  a  sphere  in  which  perfected  spirits 
may  ray  out  their  light,  and  where  they  may  gladden 
and  draw  some  eyes  by  their  beams.  I  have  no  word 
to  say  as  to  the  sky  in  which  the  rays  of  that  star  may 
shine,  but  I  do  feel  that  the  very  essence  of  this  great 
representation  is  that  Christian  souls,  in  the  future,  as 
in  the  present,  will  stand  forth  as  the  visible  embodiments 
of  the  glory  and  lustre  of  the  unseen  God. 

Farther,  remember  that  this  image,  like  the  former, 
traces  up  the  lustre,  as  that  traced  the  royalty,  to 
communion  with  Christ,  and  to  impartation  from  Him. 
"/  will  give  him  the  morning  star,"  We  shall  shine 
as  the  "  brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  as  the  stars 
for  ever,"  as  Daniel  said — not  by  inherent  but  by  re- 
flected light.     We  are  not  suns,  but  planets,  that  move 


THE  victor's  crowns. — IV.  39 

round  the   Sun   of  Righteousness,  and  flash  with  His 
beauty. 

III.  Lastly,  mark  the  condition  of  the  authority  and 
of  the  lustre. 

Here  I  would  say  a  word  about  the  remarkable 
expansion  of  the  designation  of  the  victor,  to  which  I 
have  already  referred :  "  He  that  overcometh,  and 
keepeth  My  works  unto  the  end;"  We  do  not  know 
why  that  expansion  was  put  in,  in  reference  to  Thyatira 
only,  but  if  you  will  glance  over  the  letter  you  will  see 
that  there  is  more  than  usual  about  works — works  to  be 
repented  of,  or  works  which  make  the  material  of  a 
final  retribution  and  judgment. 

Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  the  expanded 
designation  here,  the  lesson  that  it  reads  to  us  is  a  very 
significant  and  a  very  important  one.  Bring  the 
metaphor  of  a  victor  down  to  the  plain,  hard,  prose  fact 
of  doing  Christ's  work  right  away  to  the  end  of  life. 
Strip  off  the  rhetoric  of  the  fight,  and  it  comes  down  to 
this — dogged,  persistent  obedience  to  Christ's  command- 
ments. "  He  that  keepeth  My  works  "  does  not  appeal 
to  the  imagination  as  "  He  that  overcometh "  does. 
But  it  is  the  explanation  of  the  victory,  and  one  that 
we  all  need  to  lay  to  heart. 

"  My  works  "  :  that  means  the  works  that  He  enjoins. 
No  doubt  ;  but  look  at  a  verse  before  my  text :  "  I 
will  give  unto  every  one  of  you  according  to  your  works." 
That  is,  the  works  that  you  do^  and  Christ's  works  are 
not  only  those  which  He  enjoins,  but  those  of  which  He 
Himself  set  the  pattern.  He  will  "  give  according  to 
works " ;  He  will  give  authority ;  give  the  morning 
star.    That  is  to  say,  the  life  which  has  been  moulded 


40  THE   victor's   CKOWNS. — IV. 

according  to  Christ's  pattern,  and  shaped  in  obedience  to 
Christ's  commandments  is  the  life  which  is  capable  of 
being  granted  participation  in  His  dominion,  and  invested 
with  reflected  lustre.  If  here  we  do  His  work  we  shall 
be  able  to  do  it  more  fully  yonder.  "  The  works  that  I 
do  shall  he  do  also."  That  is  the  law  for  life — ay,  and 
it  is  the  promise  for  heaven.  "  And  greater  works  than 
these  shall  he  do,  because  I  go  to  My  Father."  When 
we  have  come  to  partial  conformity  with  Him  here  we 
may  hope — and  only  then  have  we  the  right  to  hope — 
for  entire  assimilation  to  Him  hereafter.  If  here,  from 
this  dim  spot  which  men  call  earth,  and  amid  the 
confusion  and  dust  and  distances  of  this  present  life,  we 
look  to  Him,  and  with  unveiled  faces  behold  Him,  and 
here,  in  degree  and  part,  are  being  changed  from  glory 
to  glory,  there  He  will  turn  His  face  upon  us,  and, 
beholding  it,  in  righteousness,  "  we  shall  be  satisfied 
when  we  awake  with  His  likeness." 

Brethren,  it  is  for  us  to  choose  whether  we  shall  share 
in  Christ's  dominion  or  be  crushed  by  his  iron  sceptre. 
It  is  for  us  to  choose  whether,  moulding  our  lives 
after  His  will  and  pattern,  we  shall  hereafter  be  made 
like  Him  in  completeness.  It  is  for  us  to  choose 
whether,  seeing  Him  here,  we  shall,  when  the  bright- 
ness of  His  coming  draws  near,  be  flooded  with 
gladness,  or  whether  we  shall  call  upon  the  rocks  and 
the  hills  to  cover  us  from  the  face  of  Him  that 
sitteth  on  the  Throne.  Time  is  the  mother  of 
Eternity.  To-day  moulds  to-morrow,  and  when  all  the 
to-days  and  to-morrows  have  become  yesterdays,  they 
will  have  determined  our  destiny,  because  they  will  have 
settled  our  characters.     Let  us  keep  Christ's  command 


THE   victor's    crowns. — IV.  41 

ments,  and  we  shall  be  invested  with  dignity  and 
illuminated  with  glory,  and  entrusted  with  work,  far 
beyond  anything  that  we  can  conceive  here,  though,  in 
their  furthest  reach  and  most  dazzling  brightness,  these 
are  but  the  continuation  and  the  perfecting  of  the  feeble 
beginnings  of  earthly  conflict  and  service. 


THE    VICTOR'S    CROWNS.-V. 

**  He  that  overcometh,  the  same  shall  be  clothed  in  white  raiment ; 
and  I  will  not  blot  ont  his  name  out  of  the  book  of  life,  but  I  will 
confess  his  name  before  My  Father,  and  before  His  angels." — Ebv.  iii.  6. 

THE  brightest  examples  of  earnest  Christianity  are 
generally  found  amidst  widespread  indifference.  If 
a  man  does  not  yield  to  the  prevailing  tone,  it  is  likely 
to  quicken  him  into  strong  opposition.  So  it  was  in 
this  Church  of  Sardis.  It  was  dead.  That  was  the 
summing-up  of  its  condition.  It  had  a  name  to  live,  and 
the  name  only  made  the  real  deadness  more  complete. 
But  there  were  exceptions  :  souls  ablaze  with  Divine 
love,  who  in  the  midst  of  corruption  had  kept  their 
robes  clean,  and  whom  Christ's  own  voice  declared  to 
be  worthy  to  walk  with  Him  in  white. 

That  great  eulogium,  which  immediately  precedes  oar 
text,  is  referred  to  in  the  first  of  its  triple  promises  ; 
as  is  even  more  distinctly  seen  if  we  read  our  text  as 
the  Revised  Version  does  :  "  He  that  overcometh,  the 
same  shall  thus  be  clothed  in  white  raiment "  ;  the 
"  thus "  pointing  back  to  the  preceding  words,  and 
widening  the  promise  to  the  faithful  few  in  Sardis  so  as  to 
extend  to  all  victors  in  all  Churches  throughout  all  time. 

Now,  the  remaining  two  clauses  of  our  text  also  seem 
to  be  coloured  by  the  preceding  parts  of  this  letter. 
We  read  in  it,  "  Thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest "  ; 

42 


THB  viotob'b  ceowns. — v#  43 

and  again,  "Thou  hast  a  few  names  even  in  Sardis 
which  have  not  defiled  their  garments.'*  Our  text 
catches  up  the  word,  and  moulds  its  promises  accordingly. 
One  is  more  negative,  the  other  more  positive  ;  both  link 
on  to  a  whole  series  of  Scriptural  representations. 

Now,  all  these  declarations  of  the  blessedness  of  the 
victors  are,  of  course,  intensely  symbolical,  and  we  can 
but  partially  translate  them.  I  simply  seek  now  to 
take  them  as  they  stand,  and  to  try  to  grasp  at  least 
some  part  of  the  dim  but  certain  hopes  which  they 
partly  reveal  and  partly  hide.  There  are,  then,  three 
things  here, 

I.  The  victor's  robes. 

"He  that  overcometh,  the  same  shall  (thus)  be 
clothed  in  white  raiment."  White,  of  course,  is  the 
festal  colour.  But  it  is  more  than  that :  it  is  the 
heavenly  colour.  In  this  book  we  read  of  white  thrones, 
white  horses,  hairs  "  white  as  snow,"  white  stones. 
But  we  are  to  notice  that  the  word  here  employed  does 
not  merely  mean  a  dead  whiteness,  which  is  the  absence 
of  colour,  but  a  lustrous  and  glistering  white,  like  that 
of  snow  smitten  by  sunshine,  or  like  that  which  dazzled 
the  eyes  of  the  three  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
when  they  saw  the  robes  of  the  glorified  Christ 
''  whitened  as  no  fuller  on  earth  could  white  them." 
So  that  we  are  to  associate  with  this  metaphor,  not 
only  the  thoughts  of  purity,  festal  joy,  victory,  but 
likewise  the  thought  of  lustrous  glory. 

Then  the  question  arises,  can  we  translate  that 
metaphor  of  the  robe  into  anything  that  will  come 
closer  to  the  fact  ?  Now,  I  may  remind  you  that  this 
figure  runs  through  the  whole  of  Scripture.     We  find, 


44  THE  victok's  crowns. — V. 

for  instance,  in  one  of  the  old  prophets,  a  vision  in 
which  the  taking  away  of  Israel's  sin  is  represented  by 
the  High  Priest,  the  embodiment  of  the  nation,  standing 
in  filthy  garments,  which  were  stripped  off  him  and  fair 
ones  put  on  him.  We  find  our  Lord  giving  forth  a 
parable  of  a  man  who  came  to  the  feast,  not  having 
on  a  wedding  garment.  We  find  the  Apostle  Paul 
speaking  freq[uently,  in  a  similar  metaphor,  of  putting 
off  an  ancient  nature  and  putting  on  a  new  one.  We 
find  in  this  book,  not  only  the  references  in  my  text  and 
the  context,  but  the  great  saying  concerning  those 
that  have  "  washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white 
in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,"  and  the  final  benediction 
pronounced  upon  those  who  washed  their  robes,  that 
they  may  "  have  a  right  to  enter  through  the  gate  into 
the  city." 

Putting  all  these  things  together — and  the  catalogue 
might  be  extended — we  have  to  observe  that  the  sig- 
nification of  this  symbol  is  not  that  of  something  wholly 
external  to  or  apart  from  the  man,  but  that  it  is  rather 
that  part  of  his  nature,  so  to  speak,  which  is  visible  to 
beholders,  and  we  may  translate  it  very  simply — the 
robe  is  character.  So  the  promise  of  my  text,  brought 
down  so  far  as  we  can  bring  it  to  its  primary  element, 
is  of  a  purity  and  lustrous  glory  of  personal  character, 
which  shall  be  visible  to  any  eye  that  may  look  upon 
the  wearer.  What  more  there  may  be  found  in  it  when  we 
are  "  clothed  upon  with  our  house  which  is  from  heaven," 
if  so  be  that  "being  clothed  we  shall  not  be  found 
naked,"  I  do  not  presume  to  say.  I  do  not  speculate, 
I  simply  translate  the  plain  words  of  Scripture  into  th» 
truth  which  they  represent. 


THE  victor's  crowns. — V.  45 

But  now  1  would  have  you  notice  that  this,  like  all 
the  promises  of  the  New  Testament  in  regard  to  a  future 
life,  lays  main  stress  on  what  a  man  is.  Not  where  we 
are  ;  not  what  we  have  ;  not  what  we  do  or  know,  make 
heaven,  but  what  we  are.  The  promises  are  clothed  for 
us,  as  they  must  needs  be,  in  sensuous  images,  which 
sensuous  men  have  interpreted  in  far  too  low  a  sense  ; 
or  sometimes  have  not  been  even  at  the  trouble  of 
interpreting.  But  in  reality  there  are  but  two  facts 
that  we  know  about  that  future,  and  they  are  smelted 
together,  as  cause  and  effect,  in  the  great  saying  of  the 
most  spiritual  of  the  Apostles  :  "  We  shall  be  like 
Him " — that  is  what  we  shall  be — "  for  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is."  So,  then,  purity  of  character,  when  all 
the  stains  on  the  garments,  spotted  by  the  flesh,  shall 
have  melted  away  ;  purity  of  character,  when  temptations 
shall  have  no  more  food  in  us  and  so  conflict  shall  not 
be  needful  ;  purity  like  Christ's  own,  and  derived  from 
the  vision  of  Him,  according  to  the  great  law  that 
beholding  is  transformation,  and  the  light  we  see  is  the 
light  which  we  reflect — this  is  the  heart  of  this  great 
promise. 

But  notice  that  the  main  thing  about  it  is  that  this 
lustrous  purity  of  a  perfected  character  is  declared  to 
be  the  direct  outcome  of  the  character,  that  was  made 
by  effort  and  struggle  carried  on  in  faith  here  upon 
earth.  In  this  clause  the  familiar  "  I  will  gv^o,  "  docs 
not  appear  ;  and  the  thought  of  the  condition  upon  earth 
working  itself  out  into  the  glory  of  lustrous  purity  in 
the  heavens  is  made  even  more  emphatic  by  the  adoption 
of  the  reading  to  which  I  have  referred  :  "  Shall  thui  be 
clothed,"  which  points  us  backwards  to  what  preceded, 


46  THE   victor's    crowns. — V. 

where  onr  Lord's  own  voice  declares  that  the  men  who 
have  not  defiled  their  garments  npon  earth  are  they  who 
^'  shall  walk  with  Him  in  white."  The  great  law  of 
continuity  and  of  increase,  so  that  the  dispositions 
cultivated  here  rise  to  sovereign  power  hereafter,  and 
that  what  was  tendency,  and  struggle,  and  imperfect 
realisation  npon  earth  becomes  fact  and  complete  pos- 
session in  the  heavens,  is  declared  in  the  words  before  us. 

What  solemn  importance  that  thought  gives  to  the 
smallest  of  our  victories  or  defeats  here  on  earth  I  They 
are  threads  in  the  web  out  of  which  our  garment  is 
to  be  cut.  After  all,  yonder  as  here,  we  are  dressed  in 
homespun,  and  we  make  our  clothing  and  shape  it  for 
our  wear.  That  truth  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
other  truth  on  which  it  reposes — that  the  Christian  man 
owes  to  Christ  the  reception  of  the  new  garment  of 
purity  and  holiness.  The  evangelical  doctrine,  "  not  by 
works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,"  and  its 
complement  in  the  words  of  my  text,  are  perfectly 
harmonious.  We  cannot  weave  the  web  except  Christ 
gives  us  yarn,  nor  can  we  work  out  our  own  salvation 
except  Christ  bestows  upon  us  the  salvation  which  we 
work  out.  The  two  things  go  together.  Let  us  re- 
member that,  whilst  in  one  aspect  the  souls  that  were 
all  clad  iu  filthy  garments  are  arrayed  as  a  bridegroom 
decketh  his  bride  with  a  fair  vesture,  in  another  aspect 
vve  ourselves,  by  our  own  efforts,  by  our  own  struggles, 
by  our  own  victories,  have  to  weave  and  fashion  and  cut 
and  sew  the  dress  which  we  shall  wear  for  ever. 

II.  Notice  here  the  victor's  place  in  the  Book  of  Life. 

"  I  will  not  blot  out  his  name  out  of  the  Book  of 
'■  ife,'*     I  have  pointed  out  that  in  the  former  clause  tho 


THE  victor's   CUOWKS. V.  47 

characteristic  "  I  will  give  "  is  omitted,  in  order  thai 
emphatic  expression  might  be  secured  for  the  thought 
that  in  one  aspect  the  reward  of  the  future  is  automatic 
or  self- working.  But  that  thought  is  by  no  means  a  com- 
plete statement  of  the  truth  with  regard  to  this  matter  ; 
and  so,  in  both  of  the  subsequent  clauses,  we  have  our 
Lord  representing  Himself  (for  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten 
that  these  promises  are  Christ's  own- words  from  heaven) 
as  clothed  with  His  judicial  functions,  and  as  deter- 
mining the  fates  of  men.  "  I  will  not  blot  out  his 
name  out  of  the  Book  of  Life  "  That  is  a  solemn  and 
tremendous  claim,  that  Christ's  finger  can  write,  and 
Christ's  finger  can  erase,  a  name  from  that  register. 

Now,  I  have  said  that  all  these  clauses  link  themselves 
on  to  a  whole  series  of  Scriptural  representatives.  I 
showed  that  briefly  in  regard  to  the  former  ;  I  would  do 
so  in  regard  to  the  present  one. 

You  will  remember,  perhaps,  in  the  early  history  of 
Israel,  that  Moses,  with  lofty  self-devotion,  prayed  God 
to  blot  his  name  out  of  His  book,  if  only  by  that  sacrifice 
Israel's  sin  might  be  forgiven.  You  may  recall  too, 
possibly,  how  one  of  the  prophets  speaks  of  "  those  that 
are  written  amongst  the  living  in  Jerusalem,"  and  how 
Daniel,  in  his  eschatological  vision,  refers  to  those  whose 
names  were  or  were  not  written  in  the  book.  I  need  not 
remind  you  of  how  our  Lord  commanded  His  disciples 
to  rejoice  not  in  that  the  spirits  were  subject  to  them, 
but  rather  to  rejoice  because  their  names  were  written 
in  heaven.  Nor  need  I  do  more  than  simply  refer  to 
the  Apostle's  tender  and  pathetic  excuse  for  not  re- 
membering the  names  of  some  of  His  fellow-workers, 
that  it  mattered  very  little,  because   their  names  were 


-18  THE   VICTOR  g    CROWNS. — V. 

".vritten  in  the  Book  of  Life.  Throughout  this  Apoca- 
lypse, too,  we  find  subsequent  allusions  of  the  same 
nature,  just  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we  read 
of  the  "  Church  of  the  first-born  whose  names  are  written 
ill  heaven."  Now,  all  these,  thus  put  together,  suggest 
two  ideas  :  one  which  I  do  not  deal  with  here — viz.,  that 
of  a  burgess-roll— and  the  other  that  of  a  register  of 
those  who  truly  live.  And  that  is  the  thought  that  is 
suggested  here.  The  promise  of  my  text  links  on  to 
the  picture  in  the  letter,  of  the  condition  of  the  Church 
at  Sardis,  which  was  dead,  and  says  that  the  victor  will 
truly  and  securely  and  for  ever  possess  life,  with  all  the 
clustered  blessednesses  which,  like  a  nebula  unresolved, 
gather  themselves,  dim  yet  radiant,  round  that  great 
word. 

But  what  I  especially  note  here  is,  not  so  much  this 
reiteration  of  the  fundamental  and  all-embracing  promise 
which  has  met  us  in  preceding  letters,  the  promise  of 
a  secure,  eternal  life,  as  that  plain  and  solemn  implica- 
tion that  a  name  may  be  struck  out  of  that  book. 
Theological  exigencies  compelled  our  fathers  to  deny 
that,  but  surely  the  words  of  our  text  are  too  plain 
to  be  neglected  or  misunderstood.  It  is  possible  that 
a  name,  like  the  name  of  a  dishonest  attorney,  shall 
be  struck  ofi"  the  rolls.  Do  not  let  any  desire  for 
theological  symmetry  blind  you,  brother,  to  that  fact. 
Take  it  into  account  in  your  daily  lives.  It  is  possible 
for  a  man  to  ''  cast  away  his  confidence."  It  is  possible 
for  him  to  make  shipwreck  of  the  faith.  Some  of  you 
will  remember  that  pathetic  story  of  Cromwell's  death- 
bed, when  he  asked  one  of  his  ghostly  counsellors 
whether  it  was  true  that  "  once  in  the  covenant,  always 


THE  victor's  crowns. — V.  49 

in  the  covenant  ?  "  He  got  the  answer,  "  Yes  "  ;  and 
then  he  said,  "  I  know  I  once  was,"  and  so  died. 
Brethren,  it  is  the  victors  whose  names  are  kept  upon 
the  roll.  These  people  at  Sardis  had  a  name  to  live, 
and  they  thought  that  their  names  were  in  the  Book 
of  Life.  And  when  it  was  opened,  lo  !  a  blot.  Some 
of  us  have  seen  upon  the  granite  of  Egyptian  temples 
the  cartouches  of  a  defeated  dynasty  chiselled  out  by 
their  successors.  The  granite  on  which  this  list  is 
written  is  not  so  hard  but  that  a  man,  by  his  own  sin, 
falling  away  from  the  Master,  may  chisel  out  his  name. 
A  student  goes  up  for  his  examination.  He  thinks  he 
has  succeeded.  The  pass-lists  come  out,  and  his  name 
is  not  there.  Take  care  that  you  are  not  building  upon 
past  faith,  but  remember  that  it  is  the  Victoria  name 
that  is  not  blotted  out  of  the  Book  of  Lite. 

IIL  Lastly,  the  victor's  recognition  by  the  Command- 
ing Officer. 

"  I  will  confess  his  name  before  My  Father,  and  before 
His  angels."  There,  too,  we  have  a  kind  of  mosaic, 
made  up  of  previous  Scripture  declarations.  Our  Lord,- 
twice  in  the  Gospels — and  on  neither  occasion  in  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  John — has  similar  sayings  ; 
once  about  confessing  the  name  of  him  who  confesses 
His  name  "  before  the  Father  "  ;  once  about  confessing 
it  "  before  the  holy  angels."  Here  these  are  smelted 
together  into  the  one  great  recognition  by  Jesus  Christ 
of  the  victor  as  being  His. 

Now,  I  need  not  remind  you  of  how  emphatically, 
to  this  clause  also,  the  remark  v/hich  I  have  made  with 
regard  to  the  former  one  applies,  and  how  tremendous 
and  inexplicable,  except  on  one  hypothesis,  is  this  same 

4 


50  THE  victor's  crowns. — V. 

assumption  by  Christ  of  judicial  functions  whicli  deter- 
mine the  fate  and  the  standing  of  men. 

But  I  would  rather  point  to  the  thought  that  this 
promise  carries  with  it  not  only  Christ's  judicial  recogni- 
tion of  the  victor,  but  also  the  thought  of  loving  rela- 
tionship, of  close  friendship,  of  continual  regard.  He 
'-  confesses  the  name  " — that  means  that  He  takes  to  His 
heart,  and  loves,  and  cares  for  the  person. 

Is  it  not  the  highest  honour  that  can  be  given  to 
any  soldier,  to  have  honourable  mention  in  the  General's 
despatches  ?  It  matters  very  little  what  becomes  of 
our  names  upon  earth,  though  there  they  be  dark,  and 
swift  oblivion  devours  them  almost  as  soon  as  we  are 
dead,  except  in  so  far  as  they  may  live  for  a  little 
while  in  the  memory  of  two  or  three  that  loved  us. 
That  is  the  fate  of  most  of  us.  And  surely  "  the  hollow 
wraith  of  dying  fame "  may  "  fade  wholly,"  and  we 
"  exult,"  if  Jesus  Christ  confess  our  name.  It  matters 
little  who  forgets  us  if  He  remember  us.  It  matters 
even  less  what  the  judgments  pronounced  in  our  obitu- 
aries may  be,  if  He  says,  "  That  man  is  Mine,  and  I  own 
him."  Ah  !  brethren,  what  a  reversal  of  the  world's 
judgments  there  will  be  one  day  ;  and  how  names  that 
have  been  blown  through  a  thousand  trumpets,  and 
had  hosannas  sung  to  them,  and  been  welcomed  with 
a  tumult  of  acclaim  through  generations,  will  sink  into 
oblivion  and  never  be  heard  of  any  more,  and  the  unseen 
and  obscure  men  who  lived  by,  and  for,  and  with  Jesus 
Christ,  will  come  to  the  front  1  Praise  from  Him  is 
praise  indeed. 

Now,  brethren,  the  upshot  of  it  all  is  that  life  here 
derives  its  meaning  and  its  consecration  from  life  here- 


THE  victor's   crowns. — V.  51 

after.  The  qnestion  for  us  is,  do  we  habitnally  realise 
that  we  are  weaving  the  garment  we  mnst  wear,  be  it 
a  poisoned  robe  that  shall  eat  into  our  flesh  like  fire, 
or  be  it  a  fair  vesture,  clean  and  white  ?  Do  we  brace 
ourselves  for  the  obscure  struggles  of  our  little  lives, 
feeling  that  they  are  not  small  because  they  carry  eternal 
consequences  ?  Are  we  content  to  be  unknown  because 
well  known  by  Him,  and  to  live  so  that  He  shall 
acknowledge  us  in  the  day  when  to  be  acknowledged  by 
Him  means  glory  and  blessedness  beyond  all  hopes  and 
all  symbols  ;  and  to  be  disowned  by  Him  means  ruin 
and  despair  ?  You  know  the  conditions  of  victory.  Lay 
them  to  heart,  and  its  issues,  and  the  tragical  results 
of  defeat ;  and  then  cleave,  with  mind  and  heart  and 
will,  to  Him  who  can  make  you  more  than  conquerors, 
who  will  change  your  frayed  and  dinted  armour  for  the 
fine  linen,  clean  and  white,  and  will  point  to  you,  before 
His  Father  and  the  universe,  and  say,  "  This  man  was 
one  of  My  faithful  soldiers."  That  will  be  honour  indeed. 
Do  you  see  to  it  that  you  make  it  yours. 


THE  VICTOR'S   CROWNS.— VL 

"  Him  that  overcometh  will  I  make  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  My  God, 

nd  he  shall  go  no  more  out :  and  I  will  write  upon  him  the  name  of 
Aly  God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of  My  God,  which  is  New  Jerusalem, 
which  Cometh  down  out  of  heaven  from  My  God  :  and  I  will  write  upon 
him  My  new  name." — Rev.  iii.  12. 

THE  eyes  which  were  as  a  flame  of  fire  saw  nothing  to 
blame  in  the  Philadelphian  Church,  and  the  lips  out 
of  which  came  the  two-edged  sword  that  cuts  through 
all  hypocrisy  to  the  discerning  of  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart,  spoke  only  enlogium — "  Thou  hast 
kept  My  word,  and  hast  not  denied  My  name."  But 
however  mature  and  advanced  may  be  Christian  experi- 
ence, it  is  never  lifted  above  the  possibility  of  temptation ; 
so,  with  praise,  there  came  warning  of  an  approaching 
hour  which  would  try  the  mettle  of  this  unblamed 
Church.  Christ's  reward  for  faithfulness  is  not  immunity 
from,  but  strength  in,  trial  and  conflict.  As  long  as 
we  are  in  the  world  there  will  be  forces  warring  against 
us ;  and  we  shall  have  to  fight  our  worse  selves  and 
the  tendencies  which  tempt  us  to  prefer  the  visible  to 
the  unseen,  and  the  present  to  the  future.  So  the  Church 
which  had  no  rebuke  received  the  solemn  injunction  : 
"  Hold  fast  that  thou  hast  ;  let  no  man  take  thy  crown." 
There   is  always  need  of  struggle,  even   for  the   most 

r)2 


THE  victor's  crowns. — VI.  53 

matnre,  if  we  would  keep  what  we  have.  The  treasure 
will  be  filched  from  slack  hands  ;  the  crown  will  be 
stricken  from  a  slumbering  head.  So  it  is  not  inappro- 
priate that  the  promise  to  this  Church  should  be  couched 
in  the  usual  terms,  "  to  him  that  overcometh,^*  and  the 
conclusion  to  be  drawn  is  the  solemn  and  simple  one 
that  the  Christian  life  is  always  a  conflict^  even  to  the 
end. 

The  promise  contained  in  my  text  presents  practically 
but  a  twofold  aspect  of  that  future  blessedness  ;  the  one 
expressed  in  the  clause,  "  I  will  make  him  a  pillar "  ; 
the  other  expressed  in  the  clauses  referring  to  the  writing 
upon  him  of  certain  names.  I  need  not  do  more  than 
again  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  here,  as  always, 
Jesus  Christ  represents  Himself  as  not  only  allocating 
the  position  and  determining  the  condition,  but  as 
shaping,  and  moulding,  and  enriching  the  characters  of 
the  redeemed,  and  ask  you  to  ponder  the  question,  What 
in  Him  does  that  assumption  involve  ? 

Passing  on,  then,  to  the  consideration  of  these  two 
promises  more  closely,  let  us  deal  with  them  singly. 
There  is,  first,  the  steadfast  pillar  ;  there  is,  second,  the 
three-fold  inscription. 

I.  The  steadfast  pillar. 

Now,  I  take  it  that  the  two  clauses  which  refer  to 
this  matter  are  closely  connected.  "  I  will  make  him  a 
pillar  in  the  temple  of  My  God,  and  he  shall  go  no  more 
out."  In  the  second  clause  the  figure  is  dropped,  and 
the  point  of  the  metaphor  is  brought  out  more  clearly. 
The  stately  column  in  the  temples,  with  which  these 
Philadelphian  Christians,  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  the 
glories  of  Greek  architecture,  were  familiar,  might  be, 


54  THE  victok's  crowns. — VI. 

and  often  has  been,  employed  as  a  sj-mbol  of  many 
things.  Here  it  cannot  mean  the  office  of  sustaining  a 
building,  or  pre-eminence  above  others,  as  it  naturally 
lends  itself  sometimes  to  mean.  For  instance,  the  Apostle 
Paul  speaks  of  the  three  chief  Apostles  in  Jerusalem, 
and  says  that  they  "  seemed  to  be  pillars  "  ;  by  which 
pre-eminence  and  the  office  of  maintaining  the  Church 
are  implied.  But  that  obviously  cannot  be  the  special 
application  of  the  figure  here,  inasmuch  as  we  cannot 
conceive  of  even  redeemed  men  sustaining  that  temple 
in  the  heavens  ;  and  also,  inasmuch  as  the  promise  here 
is  perfectly  universal,  and  is  given  to  all  that  overcome 
— that  is  to  say,  to  all  the  redeemed.  We  must,  there- 
fore, look  in  some  other  direction.  Now,  the  second  of 
the  two  clauses  which  are  thus  linked  together  seems  to 
me  to  point  in  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to  look. 
"He  shall  go  no  more  out."  A  pillar  is  a  natural  emblem 
of  stability  and  permanence,  as  poets  in  many  tongues 
and  in  many  lands  have  felt  it  to  be.  I  remember 
one  of  our  own  quaint  English  writers  who  speaks  of 
men  who  "  are  bottomed  on  the  basis  of  a  firm  faith, 
mounting  up  with  the  clear  shaft  of  a  shining  life,  and 
having  their  persevering  tops  garlanded  about,  according 
to  God's  promise,  "  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life." 
That  idea  of  stability,  of  permanence,  of  fixedness,  is  the 
one  that  is  prominent  in  the  metaphor  here. 

But  whilst  the  general  notion  is  that  of  stability  and 
permanence,  do  not  let  us  forget  that  it  is  permanence 
and  stability  in  a  certain  direction,  for  the  pillar  is  "  in 
the  temple  of  My  God."  Now,  I  would  recall  to  you 
the  fact  that  in  other  parts  of  Scripture  we  find  the 
present  relation  of  Christian  men  to  God  set  forth  under 


THE  victor's  crowns. — VI.  55 

a  similar  metaphor  :  "  Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living 
God "  ;  or  again,  "  In  whom  ye  are  bnilded  for  a 
habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit "  ;  or  again,  in 
that  great  word  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  such 
sj~mbols,  "  We  will  come  and  make  our  abode  with 
Him."  So  that  the  individual  believer  and  the  com- 
munity of  all  such  are,  even  here  and  now,  the  dwelling 
place  of  God.  And  whilst  there  are  ideas  of  dignity  and 
grace  attaching  to  the  metaphor  of  the  pillar,  the  under- 
lying meaning  of  it  is  substantially  that  the  individual 
souls  of  redeemed  men  shall  be  themselves  parts  of,  and 
collectively  shall  constitute,  the  temple  of  God  in  the 
heavens. 

This  book  of  the  Apocalypse  has  several  points  of 
view  in  regard  to  that  great  symbol.  It  speaks,  for 
instance,  of  there  being  "  no  temple  therein,"  by  which 
is  meant  the  cessation  of  all  material  and  external 
worships  such  as  belong  to  earth.  It  speaks  also  of 
God  and  the  Lamb  as  themselves  being  "  the  Temple 
thereof."  And  here  we  have  the  converse  idea  that  not 
only  may  we  think  of  the  redeemed  community  as 
dwelling  in  God  and  Christ,  but  of  God  and  Christ  as 
dwelling  in  the  redeemed  community.  The  promise, 
then,  is  of  a  thrilling  consciousness  that  God  is  in  us, 
a  deeper  realisation  of  His  presence,  a  fuller  communica- 
tion of  His  gracej  a  closer  touch  of  Him,  far  beyond 
anything  that  we  can  conceive  of  on  earth,  and  yet 
being  the  eontinuation  and  the  completion  of  the  earthly 
experiences  of  those  in  whom  God  dwells  by  their  faith, 
their  love,  and  their  obedience.  We  have  nothing  to 
say  about  the  new  capacities  for  consciousness  of  God 
which  may  come  to  redeemed  souls  when  the  veils  of 


56  THE  victor's  crowns. — VI. 

flesh  and  sense,  and  the  absorption  in  the  present  diop 
away.  We  have  nothing  to  say,  because  we  know 
nothing,  about  the  new  manifestations  and  more  intimate 
touches  which  may  correspond  to  these  new  capacities. 
There  are  vibrations  of  sound  too  rapid  or  too  slow  for 
our  ears  as  at  present  organised  to  catch.  But  whether 
these  be  too  shrill  or  too  deep  to  be  heard,  if  the  ear 
were  more  sensitive  there  would  be  sound  where  there 
is  silence,  and  music  in  the  waste  places.  So  with  new 
organs,  with  new  capacities,  there  will  be  a  new  and 
a  deeper  sense  of  the  presence  of  God ;  and  utterances 
of  His  lips  too  profound  to  be  caught  by  us  now,  or  too 
clear  and  high  to  be  apprehended  by  our  limited  sense, 
will  then  thunder  into  melody  and  with  clear  notes 
sound  His  praises.  There  are  rays  of  light  in  the 
spectrum,  at  both  ends  of  it,  as  yet  not  perceptible  to 
human  eyes  ;  but  then  "  we  shall,  in  Thy  light,  see 
light "  flaming  higher  and  deeper  than  we  can  do  now. 
We  dwell  in  God  here  if  we  dwell  in  Christ,  and  we 
dwell  in  Christ  if  He  dwell  in  us,  by  faith  and  love. 
But  in  the  heavens  the  indwelling  shall  be  more  perfect, 
and  transcend  all  that  we  know  now. 

The  special  point  in  regard  to  which  that  perfection 
is  expressed  here  is  to  be  kept  prominent.  "He 
shall  go  no  more  out."  Permanence,  and  stability, 
and  uninterruptedness  in  the  communion  and  conscious- 
ness of  an  indwelling  God,  is  a  main  element  in  the 
glory  and  blessedness  of  that  future  life.  Stability  in 
any  fashion  comes  as  a  blessed  hope  to  us,  who  know 
the  curse  of  constant  change,  and  are  tossing  on  the 
unquiet  waters  of  life.  It  is  blessed  to  think  of  a  region 
where  the  seal  of  permanence  will  be  set  on  all  delights, 


THE  viotok's  OKOWNS. — VI.  57 

and  onr  blessednesses  will  be  like  the  bush  in  the 
desert,  burning  and  yet  not  consumed.  But  the  highest 
form  of  that  blessedness  is  the  thought  of  stable,  un- 
interrupted, permanent  communion  with  God  and  con- 
sciousness of  His  dwelling  in  us.  The  contrast  forces 
itself  upon  us  between  that  equable  and  unvarying 
communion  and  the  nps  and  downs  of  the  most  uniform 
Christian  life  here — to-day  thrilling  in  every  nerve  with 
the  sense  of  God,  to-morrow  dead  and  careless.  Some- 
times the  bay  is  filled  with  flashing  waters  that  leap 
in  the  sunshine  ;  sometimes,  when  the  tide  is  out,  there 
is  only  a  long  stretch  of  grey  and  oozy  mud.  It  shall 
not  be  always  so.  Like  lands  on  the  Equator,  where 
the  difference  between  midsummer  and  midwinter  is 
scarcely  perceptible,  either  in  length  of  day  or  in  degree 
of  temperature,  that  future  will  be  a  calm  continuance, 
a  uniformity  which  is  not  monotony,  and  a  stability 
which  does  not  exclude  progress. 

I  cannot  but  bring  into  contrast  with  that  great 
promise  "  he  shall  go  no  more  out "  an  incident  in  the 
Gospels.  Christ  and  the  Twelve  were  in  the  upper 
room,  and  He  poured  out  His  heart  to  them,  and  their 
hearts  burned  within  them.  But  "  they  went  out  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives  " — He  to  Gethsemane  and  to  Calvary  ; 
Judas  to  betray  and  Peter  to  deny  ;  all  to  toil  and 
suffer,  and  sometimes  to  waver  in  their  faith.  "He 
shall  go  no  more  out."  Eternal  glory  and  unbroken 
communion  is  the  blessed  promise  to  the  victor  who 
is  made  by  Christ  "  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  Mv 
God." 

II.  Now,  secondly,  notice  the  threefold  inscription. 

We    have    done   with    the    metaphor   of   the   pillar 


58  THE  victok's  crowns. — VI. 

altogether.  We  are  not  to  think  of  anything  so  incon- 
grnous  as  a  pillar  stamped  with  writing,  a  monstrosity 
in  Grecian  architecture.  But  it  is  the  man  himself 
on  whom  Christ  is  to  write  the  threefold  name.  The 
writing  of  a  name  implies  ownership  and  visibility. 

So  the  first  of  the  triple  inscriptions  declares  that  the 
victor  shall  be  conspicuously  God's.  "  I  will  write  upon 
him  the  name  of  My  God."  There  may  possibly  be  an 
allusion  to  the  golden  plate  which  flamed  in  the  front  of 
the  High  Priest'e  mitre,  and  on  which  was  written  the 
unspoken  name  of  Jehovah.  But  whether  that  be  so  or 
no,  the  underlying  ideas  are  these  two  which  I  have 
already  referred  to — complete  ownership,  and  that 
manifested  in  the  very  front  of  the  character. 

How  do  we  possess  one  another  ?  How  do  we  belong 
to  God  ?  How  does  God  belong  to  us  ?  There  is  but 
one  way  by  which  a  spirit  can  possess  a  spirit — by  love, 
which  leads  to  self-surrender  and  to  practical  obedience. 
And  if — as  a  man  writes  his  name  in  his  books,  as  a 
farmer  brands  on  his  sheep  and  oxen  the  marks  that 
express  his  ownership — on  the  redeemed  there  is  written 
the  name  of  God,  that  means,  whatever  else  it  may 
mean,  perfect  love,  perfect  self-surrender,  perfect  obedi- 
ence, that  the  whole  nature  shall  be  owned,  and  know 
itself  owned,  and  be  glad  to  be  owned,  by  God.  That  is 
the  perfecting  of  the  Christian  relationship  which  is 
begun  here  on  earth.  And  if  we  here  yield  ourselves  to 
God  and  depart  from  that  foolish  and  always  frustrated 
attempt  to  be  our  own  masters  and  owners,  so  escaping 
the  misery  and  burden  of  self-hood,  and  entering  into 
the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God,  we  shall  reach  that 
blessed  state  in  which  there  will  be  no  murmuring  and 


THE  victor's  crowns. — VI.  69 

incipient  rebellions,  no  disturbance  of  our  inward 
submission,  no  breach  in  our  active  obedience,  no  holding 
back  of  anything  that  we  have  or  are  ;  but  we  shall  be 
wholly  God's — that  is,  wholly  possessors  of  ourselves, 
and  blessed  thereby,  "  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose 
it ;  and  he  that  loseth  his  life,  the  same  shall  find  it." 
And  that  Name  will  be  stamped  on  us,  that  every  eye 
that  looks,  whoever  they  may  be,  shall  know  "  whose  we 
are  and  whom  we  serve." 

The  second  inscription  declares  that  the  victor 
conspicuously  belongs  to  the  City.  Our  time  will  not 
allow  of  my  entering  at  all  upon  the  many  questions 
that  gather  round  that  representation  of  "  the  New 
Jerusalem  which  cometh  down  out  of  heaven."  I  must 
content  myself  with  simply  pointing  to  the  possible 
allusion  here  to  the  promise  in  the  preceding  letter  to 
Sardis.  There  we  were  told  that  the  victor's  name 
should  not  "  be  blotted  out  of  the  Book  of  Life "  ;  and 
that  Book  of  Life  suggested  the  idea  of  the  burgess-roll 
of  the  city,  as  well  as  the  register  of  those  that  truly 
live.  Here  the  same  thought  is  suggested  by  a  converse 
metaphor.  The  name  of  the  victor  is  written  on  the  rolls 
of  the  city,  and  the  name  of  the  city  is  stamped  on  the 
forehead  of  the  victor.  That  is  to  say,  the  aflSnity 
which,  even  here  and  now,  has  knit  men  who  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ  to  an  invisible  order,  where  is  their  true 
mother-city  and  metropolis,  will  then  be  uncontradicted 
by  any  inconsistencies,  unobscured  by  the  necessary 
absorption  in  daily  duties  and  transient  aims  and  interests, 
which  often  veils  to  others,  and  renders  less  conscious  to 
ourselves,  our  true  belonging  to  the  city  beyond  the  sea. 
The  name  of  the  city  shall  be  stamped  upon  the  victor. 


60  THE   victor's   crowns. — VL 

That,  again,  is  the  perfecting  and  the  continuation  of  the 
central  heart  of  the  Christian  life  here,  the  consciousness 
that  we  are  come  to  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  belong  to  another  order  of 
things  than  the  visible  and  material  aroand  us. 

The  last  of  the  triple  inscriptions  declares  that  the 
victor  shall  be  conspicuously  Christ's.  "  I  will  write 
upon  him  My  new  name."  All  the  three  inscriptions 
link  themselves,  not  with  earlier,  but  with  later  parts  of 
this  most  artistically  constructed  book  of  the  Revelation  ; 
and  in  a  subsequent  portion  of  it  we  read  of  a  new  name 
of  Christ's,  which  no  man  knoweth  save  Himself.  What 
is  that  new  name  ?  It  is  an  expression  for  the  sum  of 
the  new  revelations  of  what  He  is,  which  will  flood 
the  souls  of  the  redeemed  when  they  pass  from  earth. 
That  new  name  will  not  obliterate  the  old  one — God 
forbid  1  It  will  not  do  away  with  the  ancient,  earth-begun 
relation  of  depcDdence  and  faith  and  obedience.  "  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  sajie  ...  for  ever  "  ;  and  His  name  in  the 
heavens,  as  uf^jn  earth,  is  Jesus  the  Saviour.  But  there 
are  abysses  fa  Him  which  no  man  moving  amidst  the 
incipiencies  and  imperfections  of  this  infantile  life  of 
earth  can  understand.  Not  until  we  possess  can  we 
know  the  depths  of  wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  of  all 
other  blessed  treasures  which  are  stored  in  Him.  Here 
we  touch  but  the  fringe  of  His  great  glory  ;  yonder  we 
shall  penetrate  to  its  central  flame. 

That  new  name  no  man  fully  knows,  even  when  he 
has  entered  on  its  possession  and  carries  it  on  his 
forehead  ;  for  the  infinite  Christ,  who  is  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  infinite  God,  can  never  be  comprehended, 
much  less   exhausted,  even   by  the  united  perceptions 


THE    VICTOK'S   CEOWNS. — VI.  61 

of  a  redeemed  universe  ;  but  for  ever  and  ever  more  and 
more  will  well  out  from  Him.  His  name  shall  last  as 
long  as  the  sun,  and  blaze  when  the  sun  himself  is 
dead. 

"  I  will  write  upon  him  My  new  name  "  was  said  to 
a  Church  of  which  the  eulogium  was,  "  Thou  hast  not 
denied  My  name."  If  we  are  to  pierce  to  the  heart 
of  the  glory  there,  we  must  begin  on  its  edges  here. 
If  the  name  is  to  be  on  our  foreheads  then,  we  must 
shrine  it  in  our  hearts  now,  by  faith  and  love,  and  bear 
in  our  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus — the  brand  of 
ownership  impressed  on  the  slave's  palm.  In  the 
strength  of  that  name  we  can  overcome  ;  and  if  we 
overcome  His  name  will  hereafter  blaze  on  our  fore- 
heads— the  token  that  we  are  completely  His  for  ever, 
and  the  pledge  that  we  shall  be  growingly  made  like 
unto  Him. 


THE    VICTOR'S    CROWNS.— Vn. 

"  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  Me  in  My  throne, 
even  as  I  also  overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father  in  His 
throne."— Rev.  iii,  21. 

THE  Church  at  Laodicea  touched  the  lowest  point  of 
Christian  character.  It  had  no  heresies,  but  that 
was  not  because  it  clung  to  the  truth,  but  because  it 
had  not  life  enough  to  breed  even  them.  It  had  no 
conspicuous  vices,  like  some  of  the  other  communities. 
But  it  had  what  was  more  fatal  than  many  vices — a 
low  temperature  of  religious  life  and  feeling,  and  a 
high  notion  of  itself.  Put  these  two  things  together 
— they  generally  go  together — and  you  get  the  most 
fatal  condition  for  a  Church.  It  is  the  condition  of  a 
large  part  of  the  so-called  "  Christian  world "  to-day, 
as  that  very  name  unconsciously  confesses  ;  for  "  world  " 
is  the  substantive,  and  "  Christian  "  only  the  adjective, 
and  there  is  a  great  deal  more  "  world  "  than  "  Christian  " 
in  many  so-called  "  Churches." 

Such  a  Church  needed,  and  received,  the  sharpest 
rebuke.  A  severe  disease  requires  drastic  treatment. 
But  the  same  necessity  which  drew  forth  the  sharp 
rebuke  drew  forth  also  the  loftiest  of  the  promises.  If 
the  condition  of  Laodicea  was  so  bad,  the  struggle  to 
overcome  became   proportionately  greater,  and,  conse- 

62 


THE   victor's   crowns. — VH.  63 

quently,  the  reward  the  larger.  The  least  worthy  may 
rise  to  the  highest  position.  It  was  not  to  the  victors 
over  persecution  at  Smyrna,  or  over  heresies  at  Thyatira, 
nor  even  to  the  blameless  Church  of  Philadelphia,  but 
it  was  to  the  faithful  in  Laodicea,  who  had  kept  the 
fire  of  their  own  devotion  well  alight  amidst  the  tepid 
Christianity  round  them,  that  this  climax  of  all  the 
seven  promises  is  given. 

In  all  the  others  Jesus  Christ  stands  as  the  bestower 
of  the  gift.  Here  He  stands,  not  only  as  the  bestower, 
but  as  Hiiiiself  participating  in  that  which  He  bestows. 
The  words  beggar  all  exposition,  and  I  have  shrunk 
from  taking  them  as  my  text.  We  seem  to  see  in 
them,  as  if  looking  into  some  sun  with  dazzled  eyes, 
radiant  forms  moving  amidst  the  brightness,  and  in 
the  midst  of  them  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  man.  But 
if  my  words  only  dilute  and  weaken  this  great  promise, 
they  may  still  help  to  keep  it  before  your  own  minds 
for  a  few  moments.  So  I  ask  you  to  look  with  me  at 
the  two  great  things  that  are  bracketed  together  in  our 
text ;  only  I  venture  to  reverse  the  order  of  consideration, 
and  think  of — 

I.  The  Commander-in-Chief's  conquest  and  royal 
repose. 

"  I  also  overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father 
in  His  throne."  It  seems  to  me  that,  wonderful  as  are 
all  the  words  of  my  text,  perhaps  the  most  wonderful 
of  them  all  are  those  by  which  the  two  halves  of  the 
promise  are  held  together — "  Even  as  I  also."  The 
Captain  of  the  host  takes  His  plai'.e  in  the  ranks,  and, 
if  I  may  so  say,  shoulders  His  musket  like  the  poorest 
private.    Christ  sets  Himself  before  as  as  pattern  of  the 


64  THB  victor's  crowns. — vn. 

stmggle,  and  as  pledge  of  the  victory  and  reward.  Now 
let  me  say  a  word  about  each  of  the  two  halves  of  this 
great  thonght  of  our  Lord's  identification  of  Himself 
with  us  in  our  fight,  and  identification  of  us  with  Him 
in  His  victory. 

As  to  the  former,  I  would  desire  to  emphasise,  with 
all  the  strength  that  I  can,  the  point  of  view  from  which 
Jesus  Christ  Himself,  in  these  final  words  from  the 
heavens,  directed  to  all  the  Churches,  looks  back  upon 
His  earthly  career,  and  bids  us  think  of  it  as  a  true 
conflict.  You  remember  how,  in  the  sanctities  of  the 
upper  room,  and  ere  yet  the  supreme  moment  of  the 
crucifixion  had  come,  our  Lord  said,  when  within  a  day 
of  the  Cross  and  an  hour  of  Gethsemane,  "I  have 
overcome  the  world."  This  is  an  echo  of  that  never- 
to-be-forgotten  utterance,  that  the  aged  Apostle  had 
heard  when  leaning  on  his  Master's  bosom  in  the 
seclusion  and  silence  of  that  sacred  upper  chamber. 
Only  here  our  Lord,  looking  back  upon  the  victory, 
gathers  it  all  up  into  one  as  a  past  thing,  and  says,  "  I 
overcame,"  in  those  old  days  long  ago. 

Brethren,  the  orthodox  Christian  is  tempted  to  think 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  reduce  His 
conflict  on  earth  to  a  mere  sham  fight.  Let  no  supposed 
theological  necessities  induce  you  to  weaken  down  in 
your  thoughts  of  Him  what  He  Himself  has  told  us — 
that  He,  too,  struggled,  and  that  He,  too,  overcame. 
That  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  where  the  necessities 
of  the  flesh  and  the  desires  of  the  spirit  were  utilised 
by  the  Tempter  as  weapons  with  which  His  unmoved 
obedience  and  subuassion  were  assailed,  was  repeated 
over  and  over  again  all  through  His  earthly  life.     We 


THE   victor's   crowns. — VH.  65 

believe — at  least  I  believe — that  Jesus  Christ  was  in 
nature  sinless,  and  that  temptation  found  nothing  in 
Him  on  which  it  could  lay  hold,  no  fuel  or  combustible 
material  to  which  it  could  set  light.  But  notwith- 
standing, inasmuch  as  He  became  partaker  of  flesh  and 
blood,  and  entered  into  the  limitations  of  humanity, 
His  sinlessness  did  not  involve  His  incapacity  for  being 
tempted,  nor  did  it  involve  that  His  righteousness  was 
not  assailed,  nor  His  submission  often  tried.  We  be- 
lieve— or,  at  least  I  believe — that  He  "  did  no  sin, 
neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth."  But  I  also 
reverently  listen  to  Him  unveiling,  so  far  as  may  need 
to  be  unveiled,  the  depths  of  His  own  nature  and 
experience,  and  I  rejoice  to  think  that  He  fought  the 
good  fight,  and  Himself  was  a  soldier  in  the  army 
of  which  He  is  the  General.  He  is  the  Captain,  the 
Leader,  of  the  long  procession  of  heroes  of  the  faith ; 
and  He  is  the  "  perfecter "  of  it,  inasmuch  as  His  own 
faith  was  complete  and  unbroken. 

But  I  may  remind  you,  too,  that  from  this  great 
word  of  condescending  self-revelation  and  identification, 
we  may  well  learn  what  a  victorious  life  really  is.  "  I 
overcame  ;  "  but  from  the  world's  point  of  view,  He  was 
utterly  beaten.  He  did  not  gather  in  many  who  would 
listen  to  Him  or  care  for  His  words.  He  was  mis- 
understood, rejected ;  lived  a  life  of  poverty ;  died, 
when  a  young  man,  a  violent  death  ;  was  hunted  by 
all  the  Church  dignitaries  of  His  generation  as  a 
blasphemer;  spit  upon  by  soldiers,  and  execrated  after 
His  death.  And  that  is  victory,  is  it?  Well,  then, 
we  shall  have  to  revise  our  estimates  of  what  is  a 
conquering  career.     K  He,  the  pauper-martyr,  if  He, 

6 


66  THE  viotob's  crowns. — vn. 

the  misunderstood  enthusiast,  if  He  conquered,  then 
some  of  our  notions  of  a  victorious  life  are  very  far  astray. 

Nor  need  I  say  a  word,  I  suppose,  about  the  com- 
pleteness, as  well  as  the  reality,  of  that  victory  of  His, 
From  heaven  He  claims  in  this  great  word  just  what 
He  claimed  on  earth,  over  and  over  again,  when  He 
fronted  His  enemies  with  "  Which  of  you  convinceth 
Me  of  sin  ? "  and  when  He  declared  in  the  sanctities 
i)f  His  confidence  with  His  friends,  "  I  do  always 
the  things  that  please  Him."  The  rest  of  us  partially 
overcome,  and  partially  are  defeated.  He  alone  bears 
His  shield  out  of  the  conflict  undinted  and  unstained. 
To  do  the  will  of  God,  to  dwell  in  continual  communion 
with  the  Father,  never  to  be  hindered  by  anything 
that  the  world  can  present  or  my  sins  can  suggest, 
whether  of  delightsome  or  dreadful,  from  doing  the 
will  of  the  Father  in  heaven  from  the  heart — that  is 
victory,  and  all  else  is  defeat.  And  that  is  what  the 
Captain  of  our  salvation,  and  only  He,  did. 

Turn  for  a  moment  now  to  the  other  side  of  our 
Lord's  gracious  identification  of  Himself  with  us. 
"  Even  as  I  also  am  set  down  with  My  Father  in  His 
throne."  That  points  back,  as  the  Greek  original 
shows  even  more  distinctly,  to  the  historical  fact  of 
the  Ascension.  It  recalls  the  great  words  by  which, 
with  full  consciousness  of  what  He  was  doing,  Jesus 
Christ  sealed  His  own  death-warrant  in  the  presence 
of  the  Sanhedrim  when  He  said :  "  Henceforth  ye 
shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right  hand 
of  power."  It  carries  us  still  farther  back  to  the  psalm 
which  our  Lord  Himself  quoted,  and  thereby  stopped 
rhe  mouthe  of  Scribes  and  Pharisees  :    "  The  Lord  said 


THE  viotok's  OEOWNS. — YH.  67 

unto  My  Lord,  sit  Thou  at  My  right  hand  till  I  make 
Thine  enemies  Thy  footstool."  He  laid  His  hand 
upon  that  great  promise,  and  claimed  that  it  was  to  be 
fulfilled  in  His  case.  And  here,  stooping  from  amidst 
the  blaze  of  the  central  royalty  of  the  Universe,  He 
confirms  all  that  He  had  said  before,  and  declares  that 
He  shares  the  Throne  of  God. 

Now,  of  course,  the  words  are  intensely  figurative, 
and  have  to  be  translated  as  best  we  can,  even  though 
it  may  seem  to  weaken  and  dilute  them,  into  less 
concrete  and  sensible  forms  than  the  figurative  repre- 
sentation. But  I  think  we  shall  not  be  mistaken  if 
we  assert  that,  whatever  lies  in  this  great  statement 
far  beyond  our  conception  in  the  present,  there  lie 
in  it  three  things — repose,  royalty,  communion  of  the 
most  intimate  kind  with  the  Father. 

There  is  repose.  You  remember  how  the  first  martyr 
saw  the  opened  heavens  and  the  ascended  Christ,  in 
that  very  hall,  probably,  in  which  Christ  had  said, 
"  Henceforth  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  power."  But  Stephen,  as  he  declared, 
with  rapt  face  smitten  by  the  light  into  the  likeness  of 
an  angel's,  saw  Him  standing  at  the  right  hand.  "We 
have  to  combine  these  two  images,  incongruous  as  they 
are  in  prose,  literally,  before  we  reach  the  conception  of 
the  essential  characteristic  of  that  royal  rest  of  Christ's. 
For  it  is  a  repose  that  is  full  of  activity.  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,"  said  He  on  earth,  "and  I  work." 
And  that  is  true  with  regard  to  His  unseen  and  heavenly 
life.  The  verses  which  are  appended  to  the  close  of 
Mark's   gospel    draw    a   picture    for   us — "  They   went 


68  THE  victor's  crowns. — vn. 

everywhere  preaching  the  Word " :  He  sat  at  "  the 
right  hand  of  God."  The  two  halves  do  not  fuse 
together.  The  Commander  is  in  repose ;  the  soldiers 
are  bearing  the  brunt  of  the  fight.  Yes  1  But  then 
there  comes  the  word  which  links  the  two  halves  to- 
gether. "  They  went  everywhere  preaching,  the  Lord 
also  working  with  them." 

Christ's  repose  indicates,  not  merely  the  cessation 
from,  but  much  rather  the  completion  of,  His  work  on 
earth,  which  culminated  on  the  Cross  ;  which  work  on 
earth  is  the  basis  of  the  stUl  mightier  work  which  He 
is  doing  in  the  heavens.  So  the  Apostle  Paul  sets 
up  a  great  ladder,  so  to  speak,  which  our  faith  climbs 
by  successive  stages,  when  He  says,  "  He  that  died — 
yea,  rather  that  is  risen  again — who  is  even  at  the 
right  hand  of  God — who  also  maketh  intercession  for 
us."  His  repose  is  full  of  beneficent  activity  for  all 
that  love  Him. 

Again,  there  is  set  forth  royalty,  participation  in 
Divine  dominion.  The  highly  metaphorical  language  of 
our  text,  and  of  parallel  verses  elsewhere,  presents  this 
truth  in  two  forms.  Sometimes  we  read  of  "  sitting  at 
the  right  hand  of  God  "  ;  sometimes,  as  here,  we  read 
of  "  sitting  on  the  throne."  The  "  right  hand  of  God  " 
is  everywhere.  It  is  not  a  local  designation.  "  The 
right  hand  of  the  Lord  "  is  the  instrument  of  His  omni- 
potence, and  to  speak  of  Christ  as  sitting  on  the  right 
hand  of  God  is  simply  to  cast  into  symbolical  words  the 
great  thought  that  He  wields  the  forces  of  Divinity. 
When  we  read  of  Him  as  enthroned  on  the  Throne  of 
God,  we  have,  in  like  manner,  to  translate  the  figure 
into  this   overwhelming   and   yet   most    certain    truth, 


THE   victor's    crowns. — VH.  69 

that  the  Man  Christ  Jesns  is  exalted  to  supreme,  uni- 
versal dominion,  and  that  all  the  forces  of  omnipotent 
Divinity  rest  in  the  hands  that  still  bear,  for  faith,  the 
prints  of  the  nails. 

But  again  that  session  of  Christ  with  the  Father 
suggests  the  thought,  about  which  it  becomes  us  not 
to  speak,  of  a  communion  with  the  Father — deep,  in- 
timate, unbroken,  beyond  all  that  we  can  conceive  or 
speak.  We  listen  to  Him  when  He  says,  "  Glorify  Thou 
Me  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the 
world  was."  We  bow  before  the  thought  that  what  He 
asked  in  that  prayer  was  the  lifting  of  one  of  ourselves, 
the  humanity  of  Jesus,  into  this  inseparable  unity  with 
the  very  glory  of  God.  And  then  we  catch  the  wondrous 
words  :  "  Even  as  I  also." 

II.  That  brings  me  to  the  second  of  the  thoughts 
here,  which  may  be  more  briefly  disposed  of  after  the 
preceding  exposition,  and  that  is,  the  private  soldier's 
share  in  the  Captain's  victory  and  rest.  "  I  will  grant 
to  sit  with  Me  in  My  throne,  even  as  I  also." 

Now,  with  regard  to  the  former  of  these,  our  share 
in  Christ's  triumph  and  conquest,  I  only  wish  to  say 
one  thing,  and  it  is  this — I  thankfully  recognise  that 
to  many  who  do  not  share  with  me  in  what  I  believe  to 
be  the  teaching  of  Scripture — viz.,  the  belief  that  Christ 
was  more  than  example,  their  partial  belief,  as  I  think 
it,  in  Him  as  the  realised  ideal,  the  living  Pattern  of 
how  men  ought  to  live,  has  given  strength  for  far  nobler 
and  purer  life  than  could  otherwise  have  been  reached. 
But,  brethren,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  want  a  great  deal 
more  than  a  pattern,  a  great  deal  closer  and  more 
intimate  union  with  the  Conqueror,  than  the  mere  setting 


70  THE  victor's  crowns. — vn. 

forth  of  the  possibility  of  a  perfect  life  as  realised  in 
Him,  ere  we  can  share  in  His  victory.  What  does  it 
matter  to  me,  after  all,  except  for  stimulus  and  for 
rebuke,  that  Jesus  Christ  should  have  lived  the  life  ? 
Nothing  ;  but  when  we  can  link  the  words  in  the  upper 
room,  "  I  have  overcome,"  and  the  words  from  heaven, 
"  Even  as  I  also  overcame,"  with  the  same  Apostle's 
words  in  his  epistle,  "  This  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh  the  world  ;  even  our  faith,"  then  we  share  in 
the  Captain's  victory  in  an  altogether  different  manner 
from  that  which  they  do  who  can  see  in  Him  only  a 
pattern  that  stimulates  and  inspires.  For  if  we  put 
our  trust  in  that  Saviour,  then  the  very  life  which  was 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and  which  conquered  the  world  in  Him, 
will  pass  into  us ;  and  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  will  make  us  more  than  conquerors  through  Him 
that  loved  us. 

And  then  the  victory  being  secured,  because  Christ 
lives  in  us  and  makes  us  victorious,  our  participation 
in  His  throne  is  secure  likewise. 

There  shall  be  repose,  the  cessation  of  effort,  the  end 
of  toil.  There  shall  be  no  more  aching  heads,  strained 
muscles,  exhausted  brains,  weary  hearts,  dragging  feet. 
There  will  be  no  more  need  for  resistance.  The  helmet 
will  be  antiquated,  the  laurel  crown  will  take  its  place. 
The  heavy  armour,  that  rusted  the  garment  over  which 
it  was  braced,  will  be  laid  aside,  and  the  trailing  robes, 
that  will  contract  no  stain  from  the  golden  pavements, 
will  be  the  attire  of  the  redeemed.  We  have  all  had 
work  enough,  and  weariness  enough,  and  battles  enough, 
and  beatings  enough,  to  make  us  thankful  for  the 
thought  that  we  shall  &it  on  the  throne. 


THE  victor's  oeowns. — vn.  71 

Bnt  if  it  is  a  rest  like  His,  and  if  it  is  to  be  the  rest 
of  royalty,  there  will  be  plenty  of  work  in  it ;  work  of 
the  kind  that  fits  us  and  is  blessed.  I  know  not  what 
new  elevation,  or  what  sort  of  dominion  will  be  granted 
to  those  who,  instead  of  the  faithfulness  of  the  steward, 
are  called  upon  to  exercise  the  activity  of  the  Lord  over 
ten  cities.  I  know  not,  and  I  care  not ;  it  is  enough 
to  know  that  we  shall  sit  on  His  throne. 

But  do  not  let  us  forget  the  last  of  the  thoughts  : 
"  They  shall  sit  with  Me."  Ah  I  There  you  touch  the 
centre — "  To  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  whichi  is  far 
better ; "  "  Absent  from  the  body  ;  present  with  the 
Lord."  We  know  not  how.  The  lips  are  locked  that 
might,  perhaps,  have  spoken ;  only  this  we  know, 
that,  not  as  a  drop  of  water  is  absorbed  into  the  ocean 
and  loses  its  individuality,  shall  we  be  united  to  Christ. 
There  will  always  be  the  two,  or  there  would  be  no 
blessedness  in  the  two  being  one  ;  but  as  close  as  is 
compatible  with  the  sense  of  being  myself,  and  of  His 
being  Himself,  will  be  our  fellowship  with  Him.  "  He 
that  is  joined  to  the  Lord  is  one  spirit." 

Brethren,  this  generation  would  be  a  great  deal  the 
better  for  thinking  more  often  of  the  promises  and 
threatenings  of  Scripture  with  regard  to  the  future.  I 
believe  that  no  small  portion  of  the  lukewarmness  of 
the  modern  Laodicean  is  owing  to  the  comparative 
neglect  into  which,  in  these  days,  the  Christian  teach- 
ings on  that  subject  have  fallen.  I  have  tried  in  these 
sermons  on  these  seven  promises  to  bring  them  at 
least  before  your  thoughts  and  hearts.  And  I  beseech 
you  that  you  would,  more  than  you  have  done,  "  have 
respect  unto  the  recompense  of  reward,"  and  let  that 


72  THE  victor's  crowns. — vn. 

future  blessedness   enter  as   a  subsidiary   motive  into 
your  Christian  life. 

We  may  gather  all  these  promises  together,  and  even 
then  we  have  to  say,  "  the  half  hath  not  been  told  us." 
"  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be."  Symbols 
and  negations,  and  these  alone,  teach  us  the  little  that 
we  know  about  that  future  ;  and  when  we  try  to  expand 
and  concatenate  these,  I  suppose  that  our  conceptions 
correspond  to  the  reality  about  as  closely  as  would  the 
dreams  of  a  chrysalis  as  to  what  it  would  be  when  it 
was  a  butterfly.  But  certainty  and  clearness  are  not 
necessarily  united.  "It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be,  but  we  know  that  when  He  shall  appear  we 
shall  be  like  Him."  Take  "  even  as  I  also "  for  the 
key  that  unlocks  all  the  mysteries  of  that  glorious  future. 
"  It  is  enough  for  the  servant  that  he  be  as  his  Master." 


THE  CHBIST  OF  THE  SERMON  ON  THE 
MOUNT. 

"  He  tanght  them  as  one  having  anthority,  and  not  as  the  Bcribes." — 
Matt,  vii  29. 

''  T  DO  not  care  about  doctrines  ;  give  me  the  Sermon 
i  on  the  Mount."  So  say  some,  many  of  whom,  no 
doubt,  admire  the  said  Sermon  a  good  deal  more  than 
they  obey  it.  But  they  are  right  in  so  far  as  the  so- 
called  Sermon  is  not  a  summary  of  Christian  doctrine, 
but  of  Christian  morals.  It  is  not  a  gospel,  or  a  creed  ; 
it  is  the  law  of  the  kingdom  given  by  the  King  Himself, 
but  the  truths  on  which  it  reposes,  and  still  more  the 
power  by  which  it  can  be  obeyed,  are  to  be  looked  for 
elsewhere. 

Still,  though  that  is  true,  this  collection  of  our  Lord's 
ethical  teachings  does  go  farther  into  the  region  of 
Christian  doctrine  than  some  of  its  admirers  seem  to 
see.  And  I  have  taken  this  text,  not  so  much  for  the 
purpose  of  speaking  about  it  specially,  as  because  it 
sums  up  the  impression  that  was  made  upon  our  Lord's 
hearers,  and  may  serve  as  a  starting  point  for  our 
considering  what  is  implied  in  regard  to  some  very 
important  matters,  by  the  teaching  of  this  Sermon  on 
the  Mount. 

78 


74    THE  0HBI8T  OF  THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT. 

I  wish  to  look  at  what  Jesus  Christ  says  about 
Himself  in  it,  and  to  ask  to  what  conclusion  that  points. 
We  shall  not  do  justice  to  this  non-doctrinal  summary 
of  Christian  morals,  unless  we  recognise  that  the  con- 
clusion to  which  it  leads  is  no  less  solemn  and  lofty  than 
that  to  which  the  plainest  words  of  our  Lord's  self- 
revelation  conduct  us.  If  any  man  will  accept  the 
Jesus  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  at  His  own  valuation, 
he  vrill  have  to  go  farther  than  perhaps  he  thinks 
towards  accepting  the  Christ  of  John's  Gospel,  of  the 
Epistles,  and  of  the  Apocalypse.  So  I  gather  together 
the  scattered  intimations  that  drop  from  our  Lord's  lips 
in  this  discourse  concerning  Himself,  and  note  the 
impression  that  it  made  on  His  hearers.  I  begin  with 
that  feature  which  is  brought  out  in  the  words  that  I 
have  taken  for  a  kind  of  text. 

I.  Note,  first,  the  unique  air  of  authority  that  breathes 
through  the  whole  of  this  discourse. 

A  great  many  attempts  have  been  made,  and  that 
very  conspicuously  in  recent  days,  to  trace  the  influence 
of  Jewish  tradition  on  our  Lord's  teachings  ;  and  I  am 
by  no  means  concerned  to  deny  that  such  influence  may 
to  a  certain  extent  be  traced,  or  to  assert  that  His 
hnman  development  was  altogether  independent  of  the 
circumstances  in  which  He  grew  up.  But  these  attempts 
have  generally  been  made  in  the  interests  of  a  purely 
natural  explanation  of  our  Lord  and  His  work,  and  in 
order  to  make  out  that  He  was,  like  every  man,  a 
creature  of  his  times.  Now,  it  may  be  worth  our  while 
to  notice  that,  as  my  text  and  other  places  of  Scripture 
tell  us,  the  broad,  outstanding  impression  which  His 
teaching  made  upon  His  contemporaries,  who,  perhaps, 


THE   CHRIST   OF   THE   SERMON    ON   THE   MOUNT.  75 

knew  as  mnch  about  Rabbinical  teaching  as  modern 
scholars  do,  was  precisely  the  opposite  one — viz.,  its 
utter  unlikeness  to  the  kind  of  thing  that  they  were 
accustomed  to  hear  from  those  learned  lips.  Originality 
was  a  sin  in  the  schools  of  the  scribes.  Their  whole 
ingenuity — and  it  was  great — was  directed  to  deducing 
consequence  after  consequence,  ever  more  fine-spun  and 
fantastic,  from  the  admitted  principles  of  early  teach3rs. 
But  here  was  a  man  that  quotes  nobody,  that  never 
argued,  that  did  not  base  what  He  said  upon  anything 
previously  said  by  any  one,  but  who  stood  before  them 
making  this  impression — that  He  was  a  teacher,  cl^an 
out  of  the  rut  in  which  Rabbi  This  trod  wearisomely 
after  the  footsteps  of  Rabbi  That,  that  He  saw  things 
with  His  own  eyes,  and  drew  water  out  of  His  own  well. 
"  He  taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as 
the  scribes,"  and  if  anybody  wants  to  understand  the 
difference  between  Jesus  Christ  and  the  teachers  of  the 
day  in  which  He  lived,  let  him,  if  he  can,  get  hold  of 
a  page  of  the  Talmud,  and  then  read  the  Sermon  on  tie 
Mount,  and  he  will  find  out  that  the  unlikeness  is  a 
great  deal  more  conspicuous  than  the  similarity. 

We  need  only  to  turn  to  this  great  discourse  in  order 
to  get  proof  of  this.  For  what  is  the  first  thing  that 
would  strike  a  reader,  if  he  were  to  come  to  it  with  fresh 
eyes  ?  I  suppose  it  would  be,  not  so  much  the  wisdom, 
or  the  reasonableness,  or  the  elevation  of  the  individual 
precepts  contained  in  it,  as  the  strange  air  of  having  the 
right  to  command  which  breathes  through  it.  This  man 
speaks  to  the  listeners  as  if  He  were  their  master,  and 
our  master,  and  everybody's  master  ;  with  a  royal  tone, 
condescending  to  no  vindication  of  His  right  to  command, 


76  THB   CHRIST   OF   THE    SERMON    ON    THB   MOUNT. 

bat,  with  clear-cut,  sharp  definiteness,  laying  His  orders 
upon  every  human  heart. 

"We  cannot  say  that,  in  thus  speaking,  He  is  hiding  His 
own  personality  behind  the  truths  that  He  is  uttering. 
That  may  be  the  explanation  of  much  of  the  apparent 
dogmatism  of  moral  teachers.  It  does  not  usually 
matter  who  says  the  thing  ;  what  is  said,  and  not  who 
says  it,  is  the  important  matter  for  us.  But  in  this  case, 
Jesus  Christ  thrusts  His  own  personality  into  the  front ; 
and  the  only  vindication  that  He  gives  through  all  the 
sermon  of  the  autocratic  imperativeness  of  His  tone,  is 
not  by  referring  to  the  elevation  or  the  self-evident 
reasonableness  of  His  commandments,  but  "  I  say  unto 
you."  What  right  has  He  to  plant  Himself  opposite 
humanity,  and  to  speak  as  if  He  had  the  authority  to 
bid  them,  as  His  servants,  "  Go,"  and  they  would  go ; 
"  Come,"  and  they  would  come  ;  "  Do  this,"  and  they 
would  do  it  ?  The  right  is  based  on  what  is  articulately 
uttered  elsewhere,  but  is  implied  in  the  very  discourse 
itself. 

I  do  not  need  to  ask  you  to  set  by  the  side  of  that 
characteristic  the  tone  which  becomes  all  other  moralists 
and  guides.  If  Jesus  Christ  is  only  what  they  are,  one 
of  a  class,  the  peculiarity  which  distinguishes  His 
teaching  from  theirs  puts  Him  beneath,  and  not  above, 
them.     For  no  one  of  the  rest  has 

"made  the  important  stumble 
Of  saying  that  he,  the  sage  and  humbla, 
Is  likewise  One  with  the  Creator." 

That  is  what  He  did.  It  was  not  arrogance  for 
Him   to   push    His   personality  into   the   front,  as    the 


THB    CHRIST   OF   THE    SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNT.  77 

all-suflficient  sanction  of  His  commands.  It  matters  not 
what  is  the  shape  of  the  lampstand  if  the  light  is 
blazing.  But  here  the  lampstand  is  the  light ;  and  we 
do  not  understand  Jesus  Christ  unless  we  have  found 
the  reason  for  His  authoritativeness  in  His  Divinity. 

II.  Let  me  ask  you  to  consider  our  Lord's  attitude,  in 
this  Sermon,  to  earlier  Revelation. 

That  is  all  summed  up  in  one  word  of  the  Sermon. 
"I  came  not  to  destroy"  [the  law  and  the  prophets], 
"  but  to  fulfil."  Now,  I  have  no  time  to  dwell  upon  the 
significance,  though  it  is  important,  of  that  introductory 
word  "  I  earner  I  must  leave  that  for  other  occasions. 
But  I  ask  you  to  notice  what  is  meant  by  that  great 
word  "to  fulfil,"  and  how  much  Jesus  Christ  asserts 
about  Himself  and  His  relation  to  that  past  Revelation, 
which  He  and  His  hearers  equally  regarded  as  being 
sent  from  God,  by  that  declaration,  "  I  came  ...  to 
fulfil." 

To  fulfil?  That  refers  primarily,  as  I  take  it,  to 
the  fact  that  He  has  discharged  to  the  full,  in  His  in- 
dividual life,  all  the  obligations  which  that  ancient  set 
of  commandments  laid  upon  men,  that  He  had  done 
all  that  Moses  and  the  prophets  had  required,  as  God's 
organs,  that  men  should  do.  And  this  assertion,  though 
it  be  entirely  incidental,  carries  with  it  great  weight 
in  reference  to  His  consciousness  of  sinlessness,  and 
is  in  conformity  with  all  His  utterances.  From  the 
very  beginning  of  His  career  never  a  word  drops  from 
His  lips  to  express  that  He  has  any  experience  of  that 
which  is  common  to  us  all,  the  sense  of  imperfection, 
or  the  sting  of  remorse.  He  begins  His  course  with 
"  It  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."    In  the 


78  THE   CHEIST   OF   THE   SEEMON   ON   THE   MOUNT. 

midst  of  it  He  could  ask,  "  Which  of  you  conviuceth 
Me  of  sin  ? "  and  assert,  "  I  do  always  the  things 
that  please  Him."  At  the  last  He  could  say,  "  It  is 
finished  !  "  and  look  back  upon  a  life  of  uninterrupted 
and  complete  conformity  to  the  will  of  the  Father  in 
Heaven.  Thus  He  fulfilled  the  law.  What  right  had 
He  to  say  that  ?  Was  He  right  or  wrong  in  saying  it  ? 
If  He  was  right,  how  came  it  that  there  has  been  a  man 
in  the  world  uninfected  by  the  universal  disease,  and 
one  heart  in  which  there  was  no  drop  of  the  poison  that 
has  trickled  into  all  others  ?  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
craves  for  an  answer  to  that  question. 

He  came  to  fulfil  the  prophets.  He  asserted  that 
He,  standing  there  in  the  midst,  the  Son  of  the  carpenter 
in  a  little  village,  was  the  goal  towards  which  the  whole 
solemn  march  of  progressive  Revelation  through  the 
centuries  had  been  tending,  and  that  in  Him  all  the 
purposes  and  premonitions  of  that  earlier  Revelation 
centred  and  were  fulfilled.  That  is  a  strange  claim 
for  a  man  to  make.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  makes 
that.  And  we  have  to  answer  the  questions,  why  ?  and 
what  then  ? 

But,  further,  the  fulfilment  of  which  our  Lord  spoke 
was  not  merely  His  own  personal  realisation  of  the 
ideal  set  forth  in  the  ancient  law,  or  His  being  the 
theme  and  the  goal  of  ancient  prophecy  and  prophetic 
rites  and  ceremonial,  but  it  was  a  fulfilment  of  a  kind, 
of  which  He  went  on  to  give  a  series  of  illustrations. 
That  fulfilment  was  that  He  laid  His  hand  on  the  law 
of  Sinai,  which  He  and  His  hearers  believed  to  have 
come  straight  from  God,  and  assumed  the  right  of 
modifying  it,  of  expanding  it,  of  putting  it  in   some 


THE   CHRIST   OF  THE    SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNT.  79 

measure  on  one  side,  of  shifting  its  incidence  and 
enlarging  its  scope.  What  business  had  He  to  do 
that?  Nor  is  that  all,  but  He  uses  a  daring 
antithesis  :  "  It  has  been  said  to  them  of  old  time." 
Said  when?  In  the  giving  of  the  law.  Said  by  whom? 
By  Moses,  as  the  mouthpiece  of  God.  "  It  has  been  said 
to  them  of  old  time  " — and  now,  side  by  side  with  that, 
"  /  say  unto  you."  So  He  makes  the  authority  of  His 
own  utterances  co-ordinate  with  those  of  that  ancient 
law,  and  asserts  that  He,  too,  has  the  power  thus  to 
modify,  to  republish,  and  to  enlarge,  the  very  law  of 
God  Himself. 

Put  these  three  things  together.  What  must  a  man 
have  thought  of  himself,  who  asserted  that  he  was  the 
realised  ideal  of  humanity  as  God  had  willed  it  to  be  ; 
who  asserted  that  he  was  the  pivot  on  which  the  world's 
history  turned,  the  centre  to  which  all  the  rays  of  the 
earlier  Revelation  converged,  and  who  dared  to  put  his 
"I  say  unto  you"  side  by  side  with  Moses'  "Jehovah 
hath  said  "  ?  What  must  he  have  thought  of  himself  ? 
Answer  the  question.  That  is  the  Christ  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount. 

III.  Note  our  Lord's  attitude  to  the  followers  who 
He  anticipated  would  gather  around  Him. 

There  are  three  things  which  He  says  upon  that 
subject,  each  of  which  may  require  just  a  word  ;  and 
all  of  which,  put  together,  bring  out  a  wonderful  outline 
of  what  He  requires  from  and  will  give  to  His  disciples. 

He  demands  from  as  absolute  obedience  and  implicit 
trust.  "  He  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  Mine  and 
doeth  them  ;  I  will  show  you  what  he  is  like.  He  is 
like  a  wise  man  that  built  his  house  upon  a  rock."     That 


80    THE  CHRIST  OF  THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT. 

18  to  say,  this  Jesus,  shut  up  in  that  little  strip  of 
country,  surrounded  by  circumstances  altogether  different 
from  ours,  with  no  knowledge,  so  far  as  we  are  told, 
of  the  deep  things  that  philosophers  have  taught  and 
argued  about,  long  before  the  dawn  of  European  civilisa- 
tion, industrial  progress,  and  physical  science,  fronted 
the  world,  in  all  its  ages,  in  far  distant  lands,  and  down 
the  stream  of  time  to  the  very  end,  and  to  all  idiosyn- 
crasies of  character,  to  all  in  every  condition,  dared  to 
say,  "  If  you  will  build  your  life  on  My  commandments, 
you  will  build  upon  a  rock.  Do  as  I  bid  you,  and  your 
being  will  be  stable  and  eternal."  What  right  had  He 
to  say  that  ? 

Again,  He  expects  of  His  followers  a  devotion  so  entire 
that  they  will  be  glad  to  suffer  even  to  the  death  for 
His  sake.  "  Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  persecute 
you  and  speak  all  manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely 
for  My  sake.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad,  for  great 
is  your  reward  in  heaven."  What  reason  is  there  for 
a  man's  yielding  himself  up  thus  to  that  Lord  ?  He 
demands  it,  and  He  tells  us  that  we  shall  be  wise  if  thus 
we  fling  away  our  lives  for  His  dear  love.  And  men  have 
done  it  by  the  hundred  and  the  thousand  ;  and  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs  has  proved  the  truth  of  that  gracious 
promise,  when  they  had  admitted  the  rightfulness  of 
tiiat  solemn  demand.  Why  should  the  Christ  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  expect  men  to  go  to  the  'eath 
gladly  for  His  sake  ?  Because  the  Christ  of  the  Sermon 
ou  the  Mount  is  "  the  Lamb  of  God  "  whose  sacrifice 
•'  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  I  know  no  other 
ground  on  which  He  has  the  title  to  build  that  demand, 
or  to  cherish  that  anticipation. 


THE   CHRIST   OF  THE    SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNT.  81 

One  word  more.  He  promises  that  His  followers  shall 
receive  an  illumination  and  a  perfecting  which  will  make 
them  the  light  and  the  salt  of  the  world.  They  are 
to  be  these,  because  they  are  His  disciples.  That  is 
to  say,  He  knows  Himself  to  be  able  to  touch  the  deadest 
into  life,  to  kindle  the  darkest  into  flame,  to  tm-n  the 
most  putrid,  not  only  into  a  thing  sweet  and  sound  itself, 
but  capable  of  diffusing  sweetness  and  soundness  through 
the  corrupt  mass.  The  man  that  makes  these  claims, 
that  expects  this  sacrifice,  that  holds  out  these  promises 
is  the  Christ  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

IV.  Lastly,  and  only  a  word.  Note  our  Lord's  revela- 
tion of  Himself  as  in  future  the  Judge  of  Mankind. 

Remember  the  solemn  words,  "Many  will  say  to  Me 
in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy 
name?  ....  And  I  will  profess  unto  them,  I  never 
knew  you  ;  depart  from  Me  all  ye  that  work  iniquity." 
That  is  in  accordance  with  all  the  rest  of  our  Lord's 
teaching  upon  that  subject.  Whatever  drapery  there 
may  be  about  the  New  Testament  representations  of 
the  general  judgment,  however  much  there  may  be  of 
parable  in  the  picture  of  the  bar  and  the  gathered 
universe,  and  the  sheep  on  the  one  hand  and  the  goats 
on  the  other,  the  two  facts  of  a  judgment  of  every  man 
beyond  the  grave,  and  of  Christ  as  the  administrator 
of  that  judgment,  stand  out  clear,  and  in  my  belief 
undeniable.  He  that  sat  on  the  mountain,  and  opened 
His  lips  and  spake  this  Sermon,  is  to  sit  on  the  throne  of 
His  glory  ;  and  from  His  lips  is  to  come  my  sentence 
and  yours,  and  that  of  all  men.  That  is  the  Christ  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  You  do  not  like  doctrines  ; 
you  like  it.     Do  you  accept  its  teaching  that  He  is  the 

6 


82    THE  CHRIST  OF  THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT. 

Judge  of  all  the  earth  ?  Do  you  believe  that  He  is  able 
infallibly  to  appreciate  the  character,  and  absolutely  and 
irreversibly  to  determine  the  fate,  of  every  man  ?  Do 
you  believe  that  His  sentence  will  be  just  and  conclusive  ? 
Do  you  believe  that  not  to  be  known  by  Him  is  ruin,  and 
to  depart  from  Him  eternal  death?  These  statements 
are  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  You  say  that  yon 
accept  it ;  do  you  accept  them  ? 

Brethren,  gather  all  these  things  together  and  let 
me  again  put  the  question  to  you — where  do  all  these 
characteristics  lead  us  except  to  the  conclusion,  "  God, 
who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  unto 
the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days 
spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son,  whom  He  appointed  Heir 
of  all  things  "  ?  This  Christ  has  the  right  to  speak  with 
authority,  and  to  deal  freely  with  ancient  sacred  words, 
because  He  is  Himself  the  Eternal  Word,  the  climax 
of  all  Revelation.  He  has  the  right  to  demand  absolute 
trust  and  obedience,  even  up  to  the  suffering  of  death, 
because  He  has  tasted  death  for  every  man.  He  has 
the  right  to  promise  light  and  healing,  because  He 
Himself  is  the  Fountain  thereof,  and,  being  the  Light 
of  the  World,  can  kindle  a  kindred  flame  in  us.  He 
has  the  right  to  judge  mankind,  because  He  is  the  Son 
of  man  and  Son  of  God.  He  made  these  claims  for 
Himself  in  this  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ;  and  the  Voice 
from  another  mount,  that  of  the  Transfiguration,  counter- 
signed them  all  when  it  proclaimed,  "  This  is  My  beloved 
Son  ;  hear  ye  Him.** 


FAITH  IN  HIS  NAME. 

"  The  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesns  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory.* — Jambs  ii.  1. 

THE  rarity  of  the  mention  of  Jesns  in  this  Epistle 
mnst  strike  every  attentive  reader ;  bnt  the  char- 
acter of  the  references  that  are  made  is  eqnally  notice- 
able, and  pnts  beyond  donbt  that,  whatever  is  the 
explanation  of  their  fewness,  lower  thoughts  of  Jesns, 
or  less  devotion  to  Him  than  belonged  to  the  other 
New  Testament  writers,  are  not  the  explanation.  James 
mentions  Christ  unmistakeably  only  three  times.  The 
first  occasion  is  in  his  introductory  salutation,  where, 
like  the  other  New  Testament  writers,  he  describes 
himself  as  "  the  slave  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesns 
Christ "  ;  thus  linking  the  two  names  in  closest  unioo, 
and  proffering  unlimited  obedience  to  his  Master.  The 
second  case  is  that  of  my  text,  in  which  our  Lord  is  set 
forth  by  this  solemn  designation,  and  is  declared  to 
be  the  object  of  faith.  The  last  is  in  an  exhortation 
to  patience  in  view  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  to  be 
our  Judge. 

So  James,  like  Peter  and  Paul  and  John,  looked  to 
Jesus,  who  was  probably  the  brother  of  James  by  birth, 
as  being  the  Lord,  whom  it  was  no  blasphemy  nor 
idolatry  to  name  in  the  same  breath  as  God,  and  to 

83 


84  FAITH  IN   HIS   NAME. 

whom  the  same  absolute  obedience  was  to  be  rendered  ; 
who  was  to  be  the  object  of  men's  unlimited  trust,  and 
who  was  to  come  again  to  be  our  Judge. 

Here  we  have,  in  this  remarkable  utterance,  four 
distinct  designations  of  that  Saviour,  a  constellation 
of  glories  gathered  together  ;  and  I  wish  now  in  a 
few  remarks,  to  isolate,  and  gaze  at  the  several  stars 
—"the  faith  of  our  Lord— Jesus— Christ — the  Lord  of 


Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus. 

We  often  forget  that  that  name  was  common,  wholly 
undistinguished,  and  borne  by  very  many  of  our  Lord's 
contemporaries.  It  had  been  borne  by  the  great  soldier 
whom  we  know  as  Joshua  ;  and  we  know  that  it 
was  the  name  of  one  at  least  of  the  disciples  of  our 
Master.  Its  disuse  after  Him,  both  by  Jew  and  Christian, 
is  easily  intelligible.  But  though  He  bore  it  with 
special  reference  to  His  work  of  saving  His  people  from 
their  sins,  He  shared  it,  as  He  shared  manhood,  with 
many  another  of  the  sons  of  Abraham.  Of  course, 
Jesus  is  the  name  that  is  usually  employed  in  the 
Gospels.  But  when  we  turn  to  the  Epistles,  we  find 
that  it  is  comparatively  rare  for  it  to  stand  alone,  and  that 
in  almost  all  the  instances  of  its  employment  by  itself, 
it  brings  with  it  the  special  note  of  pointing  attention 
to  the  manhood  of  our  Lord  Jesus.  Let  me  just  gather 
together  one  or  two  instances  which  may  help  to 
elucidate  this  matter. 

Who  does  not  feel,  for  example,  that  when  we  read 
"  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us, 
looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  faith," 
the  fact  of  our  brother  Man  having  trodden  the  same 


FAITH  IN    HIS    NAME.  85 

path,  and  being  the  pattern  for  our  patience  and  perse- 
verance, is  tenderly  laid  upon  onr  hearts  ?  Again, 
when  we  read  of  sympathy  as  being  felt  to  us  by  the 
great  High  Priest  who  can  be  "  touched  with  a  feeling 
of  our  infirmities,  even  Jesus,"  I  think  we  cannot  but 
recognise  that  His  humanity  is  pressed  upon  onr 
thoughts,  as  securing  to  us  that  we  have  not  only  the 
pity  of  a  God,  but  the  compassion  of  a  Man,  who  knows 
by  experience  the  bitterness  of  our  sorrows. 

In  like  manner  we  read  sometimes  that  "  Jesus  died 
for  us,"  sometimes  that  "  Christ  died  for  us  "  ;  and, 
though  the  two  forms  of  the  statement  present  the 
same  fact,  they  present  it,  so  to  speak,  from  a  different 
angle  of  vision,  and  suggest  to  us  different  thoughts. 
When  Paul,  for  example,  says  to  us,  "  If  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,"  we  cannot  but  feel 
that  he  is  pressing  on  us  the  thought  of  the  true 
manhood  of  that  Saviour  who,  in  His  death,  as  in  His 
resurrection,  is  the  Forerunner  of  them  that  believe 
upon  Him,  and  whose  death  will  be  the  more  peaceful, 
and  their  rising  the  more  certain,  because  He,  who, 
"forasmuch  as  the  children  were  partakers  of  flesh 
and  blood  likewise  took  part  of  the  same,"  has  there- 
by destroyed  death,  and  delivered  them  from  its 
bondage.  Nor,  with  less  emphasis,  and  strengthening 
triumphant  force,  do  we  read  that  this  same  Jesus,  the 
Man  who  bore  our  nature  in  its  fulness  and  is  kindred 
to  us  in  flesh  and  spirit,  has  risen  from  the  dead,  hath 
ascended  up  on  high,  and  is  the  Forerunner,  who  for 
us,  by  virtue  of  His  humanity,  has  entered  in  thither. 
Surely  the  most  insensitive  ear  must  catch  the  music, 
and  the  deep  significance  of  the  word  which  says,  "  We 


86  FAITH  IN   BUS   NAME. 

see  not  yet  all  things  put  under  him  (t.e.,  man),  but  we 
see  Jesus  crowned  with  glory  and  honour. 

So,  then.  Christian  faith  first  lays  hold  of  that  man- 
hood, realises  the  suffering  and  death  as  those  of  a  true 
humanity,  recognises  that  He  bore  in  His  nature  "  all 
the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,"  and  that  His  human  life 
is  a  brother's  pattern  for  ours ;  that,  He  having  died, 
death  hath  no  more  terrors  for,  or  dominion  over,  us,  and 
that  whither  the  Man  Jesus  has  gone,  we  sinful  men 
need  never  fear  to  enter,  nor  doubt  that  we  shall  enter, 
too. 

If  our  faith  lays  hold  on  Jesus  the  Man,  we  shall  be 
delivered  from  the  misery  of  wasting  our  earthly  affec- 
tions on  creatures  that  may  be  false,  that  may  change, 
that  must  be  feeble,  and  will  surely  die.  If  our  faith 
lays  hold  on  the  Man  Jesus,  all  the  treasures  of  the 
human  love,  trust  and  obedience,  that  are  so  often 
squandered,  and  return  as  pain  on  our  deceived  and 
wounded  hearts,  will  find  their  sure,  sweet,  stable  object 
in  Him.  Human  love  is  sometimes  false  and  fickle, 
always  feeble  and  frail ;  human  wisdom  has  its  limits, 
and  human  perfection  its  flaws  ;  but  the  Man  Jesus  is 
the  perfect,  the  all-sufficient  and  unchangeable  object 
ibr  all  the  love,  the  trust,  and  the  obedience  that  the 
human  heart  can  pour  out  before  Him. 
^h  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  earliest  Christian  confession,  the  simplest  and 
sufficient  creed,  was,  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  What  do  we 
mean  by  that?  We  mean,  first  and  plainly,  that  He 
is  the  realisation  of  the  dim  figure  which  arose,  majestic 
and  enigmatical,  through  the  mists  of  a  partial  revela- 
tion.     We    mean   that    He   is,   as    the   word    signifies 


FAITH  IN   HIS   NAMB.  87 

etymologically,  "  anointed "  with  the  Divine  Spirit,  for 
the  discharge  of  all  the  offices  which,  in  old  days,  were 
filled  by  men  who  were  fitted  and  designated  for  them 
by  outward  unction — prophet,  priest,  and  King.  We 
mean  that  He  is  the  substance  of  which  ancient  ritual 
was  the  shadow.  We  mean  that  He  is  the  goal  to  which 
all  that  former  partial  unveiling  of  the  mind  and  will 
of  God  steadfastly  pointed.  This,  and  nothing  less,  is 
the  meaning  of  the  declaration  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ ; 
and  that  belief  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  faith 
which  this  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  writing  to  Hebrews, 
declares  to  be  the  Christian  faith. 

Now,  I  know,  and  I  am  thankful  to  know,  that  there 
are  many  men  who  earnestly  and  reverently  admire  and 
obey  Jesus,  but  think  that  they  have  nothing  to  do  with 
these  old  Hebrew  ideas  of  a  Christ.  It  is  not  for  me 
to  decide  which  individual  is  His  follower,  and  which 
is  not ;  but  this  I  say,  that  the  primitive  Christian 
confession  was  precisely  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and 
that  I,  for  my  part,  know  no  reason  why  the  terms  of 
the  confession  should  be  altered.  Ah  I  these  old  Jewish 
ideas  are  not,  as  one  great  man  has  called  them, 
"  Hebrew  old  clothes " ;  and  I  venture  to  assert  that 
they  are  not  to  be  discarded  without  wofully  marring 
the  completeness  of  Christian  faith. 

The  faith  in  Jesus  most  pass  into  faith  in  Christ ;  for 
it  is  the  office  described  in  that  name,  which  gives  all 
its  virtue  to  the  Manhood.  Glance  back  for  a  moment 
to  those  instances  which  I  have  already  quoted  of 
the  use  of  the  name  suggesting  simple  humanity,  and 
note  how  all  of  them  require  to  be  associated  with  this 
other  thought  of  the  function  of  Christ,  and  His  special 


88  FAITH   IN   HIS    NABIE. 

designation  by  the  anointing  of  God,  in  order  that  their 
full  value  may  be  made  manifest. 

For  instance,  "Jesus  died."  Yes,  that  is  a  fact  of 
history.  The  Man  was  crucified.  What  is  that  to  me 
more  than  any  other  martyrdom  and  its  story,  unless  it 
derives  its  significance  from  the  clear  understanding  of 
loho  it  was  that  died  upon  the  Cross  ?  So,  we  can 
understand  the  significant  selection  of  terms,  when  the 
same  Apostle,  whose  utterances  I  have  been  already 
quoting  in  the  former  part  of  this  sermon,  varies  the 
name,  and  says,  "This  is  the  gospel  which  I  declared 
unto  you,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to 
the  Scriptures." 

Again,  suppose  we  think  of  the  example  of  Jesus 
as  the  perfect  realised  ideal  of  human  life.  That  may 
become,  and  I  think  often  does  become,  as  impotent  and 
as  paralysing  as  any  other  specimen  without  flaw,  that 
can  be  conceived  of  or  presented  to  man.  But  if  we 
listen  to  the  teaching  that  says  to  us,  "  Christ  died  for 
us,  leaving  us  au  example  that  we  should  follow  His 
steps,"  then  the  ideal  is  not  like  a  cold  statue  that 
looks  down  repellent  even  in  its  beauty,  but  is  a  living 
person  who  reaches  a  hand  down  to  us  to  lift  us  to 
His  own  level,  and  will  put  His  spirit  within  us,  that, 
as  the  Master  is,  so  may  also  the  servants  be. 

Again,  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  belief  that  the 
Man  named  Jesus  has  risen  again,  and  has  been  exalted 
to  glory,  then,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  faith  in  His 
Resurrection  and  Ascension  will  not  long  co-exist  with 
the  rejection  of  anything  beyond  simple  humanity  in  His 
Person.  If,  however,  that  faith  could  last,  then  He  mighi 
be  conceived  of  as  filling  a  solitary  throne,  and  there 


FAITH   IN    HIS    NAME.  89 

might  be  no  victory  over  death  for  the  rest  of  us  in  Hi^ 
triumph.  But  when  we  can  ring  out  as  the  Apostle  did, 
''  Now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,"  then  we  can  also 
say,  "  and  is  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept." 

So,  brethren,  lift  your  faith  in  Jesus,  and  let  it  bo 
sublimed  into  faith  in  Christ.  "  "Whom  say  ye  that  J 
am  ?  "  The  answer  is — may  we  all  from  our  hearts  and 
from  our  minds  make  it  I — "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of^ifi  living  God." 
Qly  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord. 

Now,  I  take  it  that  that  name  is  here  used  neither  in  its 
lowest  sense,  as  a  mere  designation  of  politeness,  as  we 
employ  "  sir,"  nor  in  its  highest  sense  in  which,  referred 
to  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  not  unfrequently  used  in  the  New 
Testament  as  being  equivalent  to  the  "  Jehovah  "  of  the 
Old  ;  but  that  it  is  employed  in  a  middle  sense  as 
expressive  of  dignity  and  sovereignty. 

Jesus  is  Lord.  Our  brother,  a  Man,  is  King  of  the 
universe.  The  new  thing  in  Christ's  return  to  "  the 
glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was  "  is  that  He  took  the  Manhood  with  Him  into  indis- 
soluble union  with  the  Divinity,  and  that  a  man  is  Lord. 
So  you  and  I  can  cherish  that  wonderful  hope  :  "  I  will 
give  to  him  that  overcometh  to  sit  with  Me  on  My 
throne."  Nor  need  we  ever  fear  but  that  all  things  con- 
cerning ourselves  and  our  dear  ones,  and  the  Church  and 
the  world,  will  be  ordered  aright  ;  for  the  hand  that 
sways  the  universe  is  the  hand  that  was  many  a  time 
laid  in  blessing  upon  the  sick  and  the  maimed,  and  that 
gathered  little  children  to  His  bosom. 

Christ  is  Lord.  That  is  to  say,  supreme  dominion  is 
based  on  suffering.     Because  the  vesture  that  He  wears 


90  FAITH    US    Hlb    NAME. 

is  dipped  in  blood,  therefore  there  is  written  upon  it, 
"  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords."  The  Cross  has 
become  the  Throne.  There  is  the  basis  of  all  true  rule, 
and  there  is  the  assurance  that  His  dominion  is  an  ever- 
lasting dominion.  So  our  faith  is  to  rise  from  earth, 
and,  like  the  dying  martyr,  to  see  the  Son  of  man  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  majesty  of  the  heavens. 

IV.  Lastly,  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
"  the  Lord  of  glory." 

Now,  the  last  words  of  my  text  have  given  great 
trouble  to  commentators.  A  great  many  explanations, 
with  which  I  need  not  trouble  you,  have  been  suggested 
with  regard  to  them.  One  old  explanation  has  been 
comparatively  neglected ;  and  yet  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  true  one.  "  The  Lord  "  is  a  supplement  which  ekes 
out  a  meaning,  but,  as  I  think,  obscures  the  meaning 
Suppose  we  strike  it  out  and  read  straight  on.  What 
do  we  get  ?  "  The  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Glory." 

And  is  that  not  intelligible?  Keme^obei  to  whom 
James  was  writing — Jews.  Did  not  avery  Jew  know 
what  the  Shekinah  was,  the  light  cLat  used  to  shine 
between  the  Cherubim,  as  the  msoiixfest  symbol  of  the 
Divine  presence,  but  which  had  long  been  absent  from  the 
Temple  ?  And  when  James  fulls  back  upon  that  familiar 
Hebrew  expression,  and  recalls  the  vanished  lustre  that 
lay  upon  the  mercy-seat,  surely  he  would  be  understood 
by  his  Hebrew  readers,  and  should  be  understood  by 
us,  as  saying  no  more  and  no  other  than  another  of 
the  New  Testament  writers  has  said  with  reference  to 
the  same  symbolical  manifestation — namely,  "  The  Word 
became  flesh  and  tabernacled  among  us  ;  and  we  beheld 


FAITH  IN   HIS   NAME.  91 

His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  Begotten  of  the  Father, 
full  of  grace  and  truth."  James's  sentence  runs  on  pre- 
cisely the  same  lines  as  other  sentences  of  the  New 
Testament.  For  instance,  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  one  place, 
speaks  of  "  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our  hope."  And  this 
statement  is  constructed  in  exactly  the  same  fashion, 
with  the  last  name  put  in  apposition  to  the  others,  "  The 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Glory." 

Now,  what  does  that  mean  ?  This,  that  the  true  pres- 
ence of  God,  the  true  lustrous  emanation  from,  and 
manifestation  of,  the  abysmal  brightness,  is  in  Jesus 
Christ,  "  the  effulgence  of  His  glory  and  the  express 
image  of  His  person."  For  the  central  blaze  of  God's 
glory  is  God's  love,  and  that  rises  to  its  highest  degree 
in  the  name  and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour. 
Men  conceive  of  the  glory  of  the  Divine  nature  as  lying 
in  the  attributes  which  separate  it  most  widely  from  our 
impotent,  limited,  changeable,  and  fleeting  being.  God 
conceives  of  His  highest  glory  as  being  in  that  love,  of 
which  the  love  of  earth  is  a  kindred  spark ;  and  what- 
ever else  there  may  be  of  majestic  and  magnificent  in 
Him,  the  heart  of  the  Divinity  is  a  heart  of  love. 

Brethren,  if  we  would  see  God,  our  faith  must  grasp 
the  Man,  the  Christ,  the  Lord,  and,  as  climax  of  all  names 
— the  Incarnate  God,  the  Eternal  Word,  who  has  come 
among  us  to  reveal  to  us  men  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 

So,  brethren,  let  us  make  sure  that  the  fleshy  tables 
of  our  hearts  are  not  like  the  mouldering  stones  thai 
antiquarians  dig  up  on  some  historical  site,  bearing'' 
half-obliterated  inscriptions  and  fragmentary  names  of 
mighty  kings  of  long  ago,  but  bearing-  the  many-syllabled 
Name  written  firm,  clear,  legible,  comjilete  upon  them, 


92  FAITH   IN   HIS   NAME. 

as  on  some  granite  block  fresh  from  the  stone-cntter's 
chisel.  Let  us,  whilst  we  cling  with  human  love  to  the 
Man  that  was  born  in  Bethlehem,  discern  the  Christ  that 
was  prophesied  from  of  old,  to  whom  all  altars  point, 
of  whom  all  prophets  spoke,  who  was  the  theme  and 
the  end  of  all  the  earlier  Revelation.  Let  us  crown 
Him  Lord  of  All  in  our  own  hearts,  and  let  us,  behold- 
ing in  Him  the  glory  of  the  Father,  lie  in  His  Light 
until  we  are  changed  into  the  same  image.  Be  sure 
that  your  faith  is  a  full-orbed  faith  ;  grasp  all  the 
many  sides  of  the  Name  that  is  above  every  name. 
And  let  us,  like  the  Apostles  of  old,  rejoice  if  we  are 
counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the  Name.  Let 
us  go  forth  into  life  for  the  sake  of  the  Name,  and, 
whatsoever  we  do  in  word  or  deed,  let  us  do  all  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Glory. 


"LOOKING    UNTO    JESUS.** 

Looking  unto  JesuB." — Hbb.  xii.  2. 

rthe  preceding  chapter  the  writer  has  been  calling 
over  the  muster-roll  of  the  heroes  of  faith.  In  this 
one  he  proceeds  to  draw  the  practical  lessons  from  their 
lives.  "  Wherefore,  seeing  we  also  are  compassed  abont 
with  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  let  us  run  the  race  set 
before  us."  We  are  in  the  arena,  appointed  to  run, 
to  wrestle,  or  to  fight.  They,  like  the  spectators  in 
the  amphitheatre,  fill  the  crowded  benches,  rising  tier 
upon  tier  above  the  sand,  like  a  luminous  cloud.  They 
are  witnesses  as  well  as  spectators,  for  they  testify  to 
the  power  of  God  by  which  they  have  overcome,  and  in 
their  calm  repose  they  witness  to  the  end  of  a  faithful 
life. 

But  they  are  not  all  that  look  upon  us,  or  on  whom 
we  are  to  look.  One  figure  parts  itself  from  the  clouds  ; 
and  though  it  is  that  of  a  man  who  fought,  still  He 
stands  distinct,  and  His  brightness  dims  all  else.  It  is 
as  it  was  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  where,  for 
a  brief  space,  the  Lawgiver  and  the  Chief  of  the  Prophets 
stood  by  the  side  of  the  Christ ;  and  then  the  three 
Apostles  "  lifted  up  their  eyes,  and  saw  no  man  any 
more  save  Jesus   only."      The   cloud   melts;    the   suu 

93 


94  "looking  unto  jesus." 

shines  out.  "  We  are  compassed  with  witnesses  '* ;  but 
we  are  "  looking  unto  Jesus." 

I.  So  we  have  here  the  one  object  of  Christian 
contemplation. 

We  have  to  carry  with  us  the  metaphor  which  under- 
lies the  whole  representation.  There,  on  the  benches 
of  the  amphitheatre,  sit  not  only  the  multitudinous 
ranks  of  the  spectator-witnesses,  but  yonder  in  the 
midst,  parted  off  from  them  by  the  purple  curtains, 
and  surrounded  by  lictors  with  their  flashing  axes,  is 
throned  the  Emperor.  It  is  to  Him  that  gladiator  and 
athlete  and  runner  are  to  look.  And  what  if  the 
Emperor  was  Himself  once  a  fighter,  and  was  down 
there  where  they  now  are,  before  He  sat  yonder  on  the 
throne  ?  Nero  lost  caste,  if  I  may  so  say,  and  was 
disgraced  even  in  the  eyes  of  his  flattering  courtiers, 
because  he  once  condescended  to  dress  himself  in  the 
vesture,  and  to  fill  the  part,  of  a  gladiator  in  the  arena. 
But  our  King  has  been  down  in  the  strife,  and,  as  the 
writer  immediately  goes  on  to  say,  "He  is  the  author 
and  the  finisher  of  faith." 

So,  then,  the  main  aspect  in  which  it  concerns  a 
Christian  fighter  to  look  steadfastly  to  Jesus  is  as  being 
Himself  the  perfect  Example  of  the  conflict  and  the  race. 
Christianity  as  a  revelation  is  all  condensed  and  con- 
centrated in  Jesus,  so  that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
Christianity  is  Christ.  And  Christianity  as  a  life  may 
almost  all  be  gathered  up,  with  regard  at  all  events  to 
the  inner  side  of  it,  in  this  one  expression  of  my  text — 
gazing  upon  Christ. 

It  is  not  in  vain,  nor  with  any  rhetorical  exaggeration, 
that  the  words  appropriate  to  bodily  vision  are  trans- 


"looking     into   JESUS."  95 

ferred  unhesitatingly,  in  the  New  Testament,  to  the 
vision  which  belongs  to  the  gladsome  eye  of  faith. 
For  it  is  possible  that  we  may  have  a  sight  as  real,  as 
direct,  as  immediate  as,  and  more  reliable  than,  the 
sight  that  is  given  to  ns  by  sense  when,  with  believing 
hearts  and  thoughts,  we  realise  for  ourselves  the  past 
of  that  Christ  who  fonght,  the  present  of  that  Christ 
who  reigns. 

But  this  great  idea,  which  is  wrought  ont  in  the 
subsequent  part  of  our  verse,  is  not  a  familiar  one  to 
very  many  Christian  hearts.  The  "  author  of  faith," 
says  the  writer.  It  is  the  same  word  which  is  translated 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  "the  Prince  of  life,"  and 
in  another  part  of  this  letter,  "  the  Captain  of  salvation." 
It  literally  means  one  who  makes  a  beginning,  or  who 
leads  on  a  series  or  succession  of  events  or  of  men. 
And  when  we  read  of  the  "  author  of  faith,"  (for  the  word 
"  our  "  in  the  Authorised  Version  is  a  very  unfortunate 
supplement),  we  are  not  to  take  the  writer  as  intending 
to  say  that  Christ  gives  to  men  the  faith  by  which  they 
grasp  Him — for  that  is  neither  a  Scriptural  doctrine  nor 
would  it  be  relevant  to  the  present  context — but  to  regard 
him  as  meaning  that  Jesus  Christ  is,  as  it  were,  the 
Captain  of  the  great  army  that  has  been  deployed 
before  us  in  the  preceding  chapter.  He  came  first  in 
order  of  time,  yet,  like  other  commanders-in-chief.  He 
rides  in  the  centre  of  the  march  ;  and  He  is  the  first 
that  ever  lived  a  life  of  perfect  and  unbroken  faith.  So 
He  is  the  Leader  of  the  army,  and  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  name,  which  is  usurped  by  a  very  unworthy 
earthly  monarch,  is  the  "  Commander  of  the  Faithful." 

This  is  the  only  place  in  Scripture,  so  far  as  I  know, 


00  ''  LOOKINa    UNTO   JESUS." 

in  which  faith  is  directly  predicated  of  the  Man  Jesns, 
and  as  being  the  very  secret  of  His  human  life.  But 
there  is  a  closely  parallel  passage  in  the  earlier  part 
of  this  letter,  where  the  writer  adduces  it  as  one  of 
the  signs  of  our  Lord's  true  brotherhood  that  He  takes 
upon  His  own  lips  the  ancient  Psalmist's  words,  "  I  will 
put  my  trust  in  Him." 

So  faith,  which  we  regard  mainly  and  usually  as  finding 
its  Object  in  Christ,  finds  also  its  Example  and  its 
Pattern  in  Him.  For  what  is  faith  ?  Is  it  dependence 
upon  God  ?  If  so,  was  there  ever  a  life  which  more 
absolutely  hung  on  the  Father  than  did  the  life  of  the 
Man  Christ  Jesus,  who  said,  when  He  would  lay  bare 
the  deepest  secret  of  His  personality,  "  I  live  by  the 
Father  "  ?  Is  faith  communion  with  God  ?  Was  there 
ever  a  life  which  kept  up  so  unbroken  a  conscious  fellow- 
ship with  Him,  as  that  of  the  Man  who  could  say,  "  The 
Father  hath  not  left  Me  alone,  for  I  do  always  the  things 
that  please  Him  "  ?  Is  faith  "  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,"  a  vivid 
realisation  of  the  future  ?  Is  there  anything  more  mani- 
festly stamped  on  the  human  life  of  Christ,  as  recorded 
for  us,  than  the  continual  presence  to  Him  of  the  Invisible, 
so  that  it  might  truly  be  said  of  Him  that,  even  whilst 
He  walked  here  amongst  us,  He  "  was  the  Son  of  man 
which  is  in  Heaven  "  ?  Is  faith  a  realisation  of  the 
future  reward  ?  Then  this  very  context  tells  us  that 
the  secret  of  Christ's  patient  sufi'ering  was  that,  "  for  the 
joy  set  before  Him,  He  endured  the  cross."  Thus,  from 
whatever  side  we  contemplate  that  great  Christian  idea 
of  faith,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Example  of  it  ;  and  we 
are  to  look  to  Him  as  its  perfect  Pattern. 


"looking  unto  JESUS."  97 

But  there  is  another  thought  suggested  also  by  tho 
context.  We  are  not  only  to  realise  and  make  our  own 
by  contemplation  the  past  of  the  Jesus  who  fought, 
but  the  present  of  the  Jesus  who  reigns.  Sight,  in  its 
lowest  sense,  of  course,  cannot  travel  thither,  and  in 
the  mere  physical  signification  of  the  word.  He  is  to  us, 
by  an  altogether  unique  and  unparalleled  experience, 
the  Christ  "  whom,  having  not  seen,  we  love."  There 
is  nothing  in  the  whole  world  the  least  like  that  strange 
fact  that  love,  which  in  general  needs  the  air  of  corporeal 
vision,  at  some  stage  or  other,  should,  perfectly  indepen- 
dently of  that,  gush  out  in  such  exuberant  streams 
towards  a  Man  that  has  been  dead  for  nineteen  centuries, 
and  whom  none  of  His  lovers  have  ever  beheld.  The 
gathering  mists  of  oblivion  wrap  all  other  great  names 
around.  Contrast  the  poor,  pale,  phantom  regards  which 
we  have  for  any  other  of  the  great  names  of  the  past, 
with  the  warm,  solid,  living  grasp  which  Christian  hands 
lay  on  the  unseen  hand  of  the  Lord,  and  you  will  under- 
stand something  of  the  uniqueness  of  the  Christian 
relation  to  the  Christ.  But  whilst  thus  the  lower  kind 
of  sight  fails,  the  higher  kind  survives,  and  all  the  more 
because  of  the  defect  and  dropping  away  of  the  other. 
So  that  it  is  no  piece  of  rhetorical  rhodomontade  when 
this  writer  says,  "  We  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under 
Him " — that  is,  with  the  bodily  eye — "  but,"  as  he 
triumphantly  goes  on  to  say,  "  we  see  Jesus  crowned 
with  glory  and  honour."  And  that  coronation  of  the 
Christ  is  the  pledge  that  we,  too,  if  we  look  to  Him, 
shall  one  day  sit  amongst  the  witnesses  lapped  in  rest 
and  adorned  with  glory. 

Let   me    press    upon   you,  brethren,   that    this,   the 

7 


98  "LOOKINa  UNTO  JB8US." 

suffering  and  exalted  Christ,  is  to  be  the  object  of  oar 
habitual  contemplation.  Nothing  great  reveals  itself 
to  a  hasty  glance.  No  great  book  can  be  read  by 
snatches.  No  great  picture  can  be  understood  or  felt 
by  the  man,  who  runs  through  a  gallery  and  looks  at 
a  hundred  in  half  an  hour.  The  secrets  of  no  fair 
landscape  will  impart  themselves  to  the  hasty  tripper, 
who  casts  a  lack-lustre  gaze  for  a  minute  over  it.  This 
modern  life  of  ours,  with  its  hurry  and  its  bustle,  about 
which  so  many  people  are  so  proud,  is  fatal,  unless  we 
exercise  continual  watchfulness  over  ourselves,  to  all 
deep  and  noble  things.  The  most  of  us  spend  our  lives 
as  some  amateur  photographers  do  their  days,  in  taking 
snapshots  ;  and,  of  course,  the  mystery,  and  the  beauty, 
and  the  secret,  and  the  power  escape  us.  Sit  down 
and  let  the  loveliness  soak  into  you,  if  you  want  to 
understand  the  fairest  scenes  of  Nature.  Sit  down  in 
front  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  take  your  time,  acd  as  you 
look  you  will  learn  that  which  no  hasty  glance,  no 
couple  of  minutes  in  the  morning  before  you  go  to 
work,  no  still  more  abbreviated  and  drowsy  moments  at 
night  before  you  go  to  sleep,  will  ever  reveal  to  you. 
You  must  "  summer  and  winter  "  with  Him 

"ere  that  to  you 
He  will  seem  worthy  of  your  love." 

II.  And  now,  secondly,  note  the  resolute  shutting-off 
of  other  objects  needed  to  secure  this  vision. 

Many  of  you,  no  doubt,  know  that  the  word  rendered 
"  looking "  is  a  compound  expression  which  would  be 
fully  represented  by  "  looking  off,"  looking  away  from 
other  things,  in  order  to  look  on  to  Jesus  Christ.  Now, 
that  is  no  more  than  every  object  of  pursuit,  either  in 


"looking  unto  JESUS."  99 

the  intellectual  or  in  the  practical  world,  demands  for 
its  successful  prosecution.  Science  will  give  no  favours 
to  vagrant  suitors.  If  we  are  to  hold  anything  we  must 
relinquish  much  that  we  have  ;  to  concentrate  ourselves 
and  to  give  up  the  attempt  to  "intermeddle  with  all 
knowledge  "  if  we  would  know  any  one  thing  thoroughly. 
So  that  Christianity  is  doing  no  more  than  your  shop, 
your  business,  your  profession,  or  than  your  studies,  your 
pursuits,  your  recreations  even,  demand,  when  it  demands 
the  exclusion  of  much  in  order  that  you  may  truly  hold 
it.  "Astronomers  put  what  they  call  diaphragms  into 
their  telescopes,  which  narrow  the  field  of  vision.  What 
for?  In  order  to  secure  a  sharper  definition.  And  we 
have  to  do  the  same  thing,  to  shut  off  a  great  deal,  to 
do  as  a  man  does  that  is  looking  at  the  white  gleam, 
for  instance,  away  yonder  questionable  on  the  horizon, 
which  may  be  the  foam  of  a  billow  or  a  gull's  wing,  or 
the  ship  that  he  is  expecting.  He  puts  his  hand  to  his 
brows,  in  order  to  shut  out  everything  else,  and  fixes 
his  gaze.  That  is  what  we  have  to  do.  Look  off  if 
you  would  look  on.  Look  away  from  the  intrusive 
and  vulgar  brilliancy  of  "  the  things  that  are  seen  and 
temporal. "  You  will  never  see  the  stars  in  a  street 
blazing  with  electric  lamps ;  and  you  will  never  see 
Christ  as  you  ought  to  see  Him,  if  your  thoughts  and 
desires  and  aims  are  all  squandered  upon  this  fleeting 
present.  A  worldly  Christian — and,  alas  1  that  is  the 
right  name  of  thousands  of  them,  and  of  many  of  us — 
a  worldly  Christian  will  see  but  a  dim  Christ.  Such, 
and  nothing  more,  is  the  Christ  that  a  great  many  of 
you  have  seen.  The  little  things  near  shut  out  the 
great  things  remote.    I  know  that  I  am  speaking  to  many 


100  "looking   unto   JESUS." 

a  one  who  has  so  turned  his  or  her  current  of  life  to  the 
things  of  this  present  world,  as  that  there  is  no  force 
left  to  drive  the  wheels  of  a  higher  life.  I  beseech  you, 
do  not  be  like  John  Buuyan's  man  with  the  muck-rake, 
who  was  so  busy  in  piling  together  the  manure  and 
the  rotten  straw  that  he  never  lifted  his  eye  to  the 
crown  that  was  dangling  above,  but  never  would  alight 
on,  his  heedless  and  earth'-turned  head.  Look  away 
from  the  present  if  you  would  see  Christ. 

Look  away  from  the  cloud  of  witnesses — from  the 
men  living  and  dead  whose  examples  may,  in  some 
measure,  stimulate,  but  who  have  no  power  to  reproduce 
in  us  their  own  likenesses. 

Look  away  from  the  living.  They  can  do  much  for 
us.  Thank  God  for  human  love,  and  earthly  companion- 
ship, and  family  ties,  and  friendship  and  all  its  sweet- 
ness. But  each  human  soul  needs  more  than  any 
human  soul  can  give.  Never  mind  men's  judgments. 
The  racer  has  to  neglect  the  crowd,  whether  they  roar 
applause  or  yell  disapprobation,  as  he  speeds  past  them. 
They  cannot  help  us  ;  Christ  can.  Look  away  from 
them,  and  look  to  Him. 

Look  away  from  difficulties.  No  race  will  be  run, 
if  we  begin  by  counting  up  the  roughnesses  and  the 
obstacles.  There  is  nothing  more  weakening  than  that 
habit  of  anticipating  difficulties  in  our  course.  "  He 
that  observeth  the  wind  shall  not  sow  ;  and  he  that 
regardeth  the  clouds  shall  not  reap."  The  difference 
between  the  successful  and  the  unsuccessful  man  consists 
largely  in  this,  that  the  one  looks  out  from  the  harbour, 
and  is  so  frightened  with  the  crests  of  the  white  sea- 
horses outside  that  he  will  not  put  forth  into  them,  or 


"looking   unto   JESUS."  101 

loses  his  head  if  he  does  ;  and  that  the  other  looks  at 
them,  and  gathers  himself  up  to  front  them.  Difficulties  ? 
they  are  things  to  be  overcome.  The  climber  that  looks 
down  will  go  down,  in  many  cases.  The  only  safety  is  to 
look  up,  away  from  the  arena,  and  up  to  the  Emperor. 

Look  away  from  yourselves.  You  will  never  make 
yourselves  strong  by  groaning  over  your  weaknesses. 
You  may  get  some  hints  as  to  what  yon  should 
avoid  and  so  forth,  by  self-examination,  and  I  am  not 
dehorting  from  that.  But  I  say  there  are  few  more 
widely  operative  causes  of  imperfect  and  unprogressive 
Christian  lives  than  that  habit  of  always  looking  at  our- 
selves, and  recounting  to  ourselves  our  own  failures.  That 
is  not  the  way  to  get  strength.     "  Look  off  unto  Jesus." 

III.  And  now  there  is  only  one  last  thought  to  which 
I  point,  that  is — the  strength  for  duty  which  comes 
from  the  look. 

The  construction  of  my  text  shows  that  "looking 
unto  Jesus "  is  the  principal  means  which  the  writer 
suggests  for  "  running  with  patience  the  race  that  is 
set  before  us."  That  look  will  bring  to  us  the  strength 
that  comes  from  the  contemplation  of  a  perfect  Example. 
When  we  try  to  grasp  the  unseen  hand  in  the  darkness  ; 
when  we  try  tremblingly  to  bow  our  wills,  and  to  say, 
"  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  Him  '* ;  when 
we  try  to  nerve  ourselves  for  duty  and  for  sacrifice  ; 
when  we  try  to  shut  out  the  gaudy  brightnesses  of 
to-day,  and  to  make  solid  the  vision  of  the  future,  and 
to  "  endure  the  cross,"  "  despising  the  shame,"  it  is 
a  priceless  source  of  inspiration  and  of  power  to  us  to 
think  that  Jesus  Christ  in  all  these  things  went  before 
lis,  and  did  the  very  same. 


102  "  LOOKING    UNTO  JESUS," 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us — and  of  good  men 
still  more — how  we  may  make  our  lives  great  and  good  ; 
but  they  have  little  power  to  help  us.  Jesus  Christ 
can  help  us,  and  His  example  is  more  than  example. 

That  look  will  bring  to  us  the  strength  of  a  continual 
presence  with  us.  Our  yearning  hearts  often  ask,  Are 
our  dead  near  us  ?  We  get  no  answer.  But  Jesus 
Christ  is  near  us,  and  as  surely  as  the  man  who  lifts 
his  face  to  the  sun  has  his  face  irradiated  and  his  eyes 
illuminated  by  its  brightness,  so  surely  will  Jesus  Christ 
lift  up  the  light  of  His  countenance  on  every  eye  that 
looks  to  Him  and  make  it  glad. 

"The  sun,  whose  beams  most  glorioua  are^ 
Disdaineth  no  beholder," 

and  every  eye   has   the  bright  ray  coming   straight  to 
itself  through  all  the  distant  fields  of  space. 

That  look  will  give  strength  for  the  race  by  making 
us  certain  of  the  prize.  "  The  Forerunner  hath  for  us 
entered."  So,  brethren,  look  off  to  Jesus.  The  stars 
do  give  light,  but  the  sun  drowns  their  twinkle.  He 
is  the  Example  ;  therefore  looking  to  Him  will  give  us 
instruction  and  strength.  He  is  the  goal ;  therefore 
looking  to  Him  will  be  no  hindrance,  nor  will  it  entangle 
our  feet.  He  is  the  Judge  ;  therefore  looking  to  Him 
will  stimulate.  He  is  the  Reward ;  therefore  looking 
to  Him  will  wing  our  feet  with  hopes  which  are  certain- 
ties. If  from  the  dust  of  earth  we  look  up  to  Him  from 
afar.  He  will  make  our  feet  like  hinds'  feet ;  and  when 
the  race  is  run,  He  will  carry  us  thither  whither  our 
looks  and  our  hearts  have  travelled  before.  And  then 
the  far-off  gaze  from  this  dim  spot  will  be  changed  for 
the  closer  vision,  which    shall   transform  the   beholder 


"looking   unto   JESUS."  103 

into  the  image  of  that  which  is  beheld,  and  the  great 
promise  will  be  fulfilled  :  "  As  for  me,  I  shall  behold 
Thy  face  in  righteousness.  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I 
awake  in  Thy  likeness." 

Help  us,  0  Lord,  we  beseech  Thee,  to  look  unto  Christ 
in  all  our  conflict  and  struggle.  Turn  away  our  eyes 
from  seeing  vanity  ;  and  may  we,  looking  unto  Him 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  be  saved. 


PAUL    AT    CORINTH. 

"  And  when  Silas  and  Timothetis  were  come  from  Macedonia,  Pftnl 
was  pressed  in  the  spirit,  and  testified." — Acts  xviii.  6. 

THE  Revised  Version,  in  concurrence  with  most  recent 
authorities,  reads,  instead  of  "  pressed  in  the  spirit," 
"  constrained  by  the  word."  One  of  these  alterations 
depends  on  a  diversity  of  reading,  the  other  on  a 
difference  of  translation.  The  one  introduces  a  signifi- 
cant difference  of  meaning  ;  the  other  is  rather  a  change 
of  expression.  The  word  rendered  here  "  pressed,"  and 
by  the  Revised  Version  "constrained,"  is  employed 
in  its  literal  use  in  "  Master,  the  multitude  throng 
Thee  and  press  Thee,"  and  in  its  metaphorical  applica- 
tion in  "  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us."  There 
is  not  much  difference  between  "  constrained "  and 
"  pressed,"  but  there  is  a  large  difference  between  "  in 
the  spirit "  and  "  by  the  word."  "  Pressed  in  the 
spirit "  simply  describes  a  state  of  feeling  or  mind  ; 
"  constrained  by  the  word "  declares  the  force  which 
brought  about  that  condition  of  pressure  and  constraint." 
What,  then,  does  "  constrained  by  the  word  "  refer  to  ? 
It  indicates  that  Paul's  message  had  a  grip  of  him,  and 
held  him  hard,  and  forced  him  to  deliver  it. 

One  more  preliminary  remark  is  that  our  text  evidently 
brings  this  state  of  mind  of  the  Apostle,  and  the  coming 

104 


PAUL  AT   COBINTH.  105 

of  his  two  friends  Silas  and  Timothy,  into  relation  as 
cause  and  effect.  He  had  been  alone  in  Corinth.  His 
work  had  not  been  encouraging  of  late.  He  had  been 
comparatively  silent  there,  and  had  spent  most  of  his 
time  in  tent-making.  But  when  his  two  friends  came 
a  cloud  was  lifted  off  his  spirit,  and  he  sprang  back 
again,  as  it  were,  to  his  old  form  and  to  his  old  work. 

Now,  if  we  take  that  point  of  view  with  regard  to 
the  passage  before  us,  I  think  we  shall  find  that  it  yields 
valuable  lessons,  some  of  which  I  wish  to  try  to  enforce 
now. 

I.  Let  me  ask  you  to  look  with  me  at  the  downcast 
Apostle. 

"  Downcast,"  you  say  ;  "  is  not  that  an  unworthy 
word  to  use  about  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  inspired 
as  Paul  ?  "  By  no  means.  We  shall  very  much  mistake 
both  the  nature  of  inspiration  and  the  character  of  this 
inspired  Apostle,  if  we  do  not  recognise  that  he  was  a 
man  of  many  moods  and  tremulously  susceptible  to 
external  influences.  Such  music  would  never  have 
come  from  him,  if  his  soul  had  not  been  like  an  ^olian 
harp  hung  in  a  tree,  that  vibrated  in  response  to  every 
breeze.  And  so  we  need  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  the 
Apostle's  mood,  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  section  before 
us,  as  being  downcast. 

Now,  notice  that  in  the  verses  preceding  my  text  his 
conduct  is  extremely  abnormal,  and  unlike  his  usual 
procedure.  He  goes  into  Corinth,  and  he  does  next  to 
nothing  in  evangelistic  work.  He  repairs  to  the  syna- 
gogue once  a  week,  and  talks  to  the  Jews  there.  But  that 
is  all.  The  notice  of  his  reasoning  in  the  synagogue  is 
quite   subordinate   to   the   notice   that  he  was  occupied 


106  PAUL   AT    CORINTH. 

in  finding  a  lodging  with  another  panper  Jew  and 
stranger  in  the  great  city,  and  that  these  two  poor 
men  went  into  a  kind  of  partnership,  and  tried  to  earn 
a  living  by  hard  work.  Such  procedure  makes  a  singular 
contrast  to  Paul's  usual  methods  in  a  strange  city. 

Now,  the  reason  for  that  slackening  of  impulse,  and 
comparative  cessation  of  activity,  is  not  far  to  seek.  The 
first  Epistle  to  Thessalonica  was  written  immediately 
after  these  two  brethren  rejoined  Paul.  And  how  does 
the  Apostle  describe  in  that  letter  his  feelings  before 
they  came  ?  He  speaks  of  "  all  our  distress  and 
affliction."  He  tells  that  he  was  tortured  by  anxiety 
as  to  how  the  new  converts  in  Thessalonica  were  getting 
on,  and  could  not  forbear  to  try  to  find  out  whether 
they  were  still  standing  steadfast.  Again,  in  the  first 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  you  will  find  that  there, 
looking  back  to  this  period,  he  describes  his  feelings 
in  similar  fashion  and  says,  "  I  was  with  you  in  weak- 
ness and  in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling."  And  if  you 
look  on  a  verse  or  two  in  our  chapter,  you  will  find 
that  there  came  a  vision  to  our  Apostle,  which  pre- 
supposes that  some  touch  of  fear,  and  some  temptation 
to  silence,  were  busy  in  his  heart.  For  God  shapes 
His  communications  according  to  our  need,  and  would 
not  have  said,  "  Do  not  be  afraid,  and  hold  not  thy 
peace,  but  speak,"  unless  there  had  been  a  danger  both 
of  his  being  frightened  and  of  his  being  dumb. 

And  what  thus  brought  a  cloud  over  his  sky?  A 
little  exercise  of  historical  imagination  will  very  suflfi- 
ciently  answer  that.  A  few  weeks  before,  in  obedience, 
as  he  believed,  to  a  direct  Divine  command,  Paul  had 
made  a  plunge,  and  ventured  upon  an  altogether  new 


PAUL   AT    CORINTH.  107 

phase  of  work.  He  had  crossed  into  Europe,  and  from 
the  moment  that  he  landed  at  the  harbour  of  Philippi, 
up  to  the  time  when  he  took  refuge  in  some  quiet 
little  room  in  Corinth,  he  had  had  nothing  but  trouble 
and  danger  and  disappointment.  The  prison  at  Philippi, 
the  riots  that  hounded  him  out  of  Thessalonica,  the 
stealthy,  hurried  escape  from  Bercea,  the  almost  entire 
failure  of  his  first  attempt  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
Greeks  in  Athens,  his  loneliness,  and  the  strangeness 
of  his  surroundings  in  the  luxurious,  wicked,  wealthy 
Greek  city  of  Corinth — all  these  things  weighed  on  him, 
and  there  is  no  wonder  that  his  spirit  went  down,  and 
he  felt  that  now  he  must  lie  fallow  for  a  time  and  rest, 
and  pull  himself  together  again. 

So  here,  we  have,  in  this  great  champion  of  the  faith, 
in  this  strong  runner  of  the  Christian  race,  in  this  chief 
of  men,  an  example  of  the  fluctuation  of  mood,  the 
variation  in  the  way  in  which  we  look  at  our  duties 
and  our  obligations  and  our  difficulties,  the  slackening 
of  the  impulse  which  dominates  our  lives,  that  is  too 
familiar  to  us  all.  It  brings  Paul  nearer  to  feel  that 
he,  too,  knew  these  ups  and  downs.  The  force  that 
drove  this  meteor  through  the  darkness  varied,  as  the 
force  that  impels  us  varies  to  our  consciousness.  It 
is  the  prerogative  of  God  to  be  immutable  ;  men  have 
their  moods  and  their  fluctuations.  Kindled  lights 
flicker ;  the  sun  burns  steadily.  An  Elijah  to-day 
beards  Ahab  and  Jezebel  and  all  their  priests,  and 
to-morrow  hides  his  head  in  his  hands,  and  says,  "  Take 
me  away,  I  am  not  better  than  my  fathers."  There  will 
be  ups  and  downs  in  the  Christian  vigour  of  our  lives, 
as  well  as  in  all  other  regions,  as  long  as  men  dwell 


1U8     ,  PAUL  AT   COBINTH. 

in  this  material  body  and  are  surrounded  by  their 
present  circumstances. 

Brethren,  it  is  no  small  part  of  Christian  wisdom 
and  providence  to  recognise  this  fact,  both  in  order  that 
it  may  prevent  us  from  becoming  unduly  doubtful  of 
ourselves  when  the  ebb  tide  sets  in  on  our  souls,  and 
also  in  order  that  we  may  lay  to  heart  this  other  truth, 
that  because  these  moods  and  changes  of  aspect  and 
of  vigour  will  come  to  us,  therefore  the  law  of  life 
must  be  effort,  and  the  duty  of  every  Christian  man 
be  to  minimise,  in  so  far  as  possible,  the  fluctuations 
which,  in  some  degree,  are  inevitable.  No  human  hand 
has  ever  drawn  an  absolutely  straight  line.  That  is  the 
ideal  of  the  mathematician,  but  all  ours  are  crooked. 
But  we  may  indefinitely  diminish  the  magnitude  of  the 
curves.  No  two  atoms  are  so  close  together  as  that 
there  is  no  film  between  them.  No  human  life  has  ever 
been  an  absolutely  continuous,  unbroken  series  of  equally 
holy  and  devoted  thoughts  and  acts,  but  we  may  diminish 
the  intervals  between  kindred  states,  and  may  make 
our  lives  so  far  uniform  as  that  to  a  bystander  they 
shall  look  like  the  bright  circle,  which  a  brand  whirled 
round  in  the  air  makes  the  impression  of,  on  the  eye 
that  beholds.  We  shall  have  times  of  brightness  and 
of  less  brilliancy,  of  vigour  and  of  consequent  reaction 
and  exhaustion.  But  Christianity  has,  for.  one  of  its 
objects,  to  help  us  to  master  our  moods,  and  to  bring 
us  nearer  and  nearer,  by  continual  growth,  to  the  stead- 
fast, unmovable  attitude  of  those  whose  faith  is  ever 
the  same. 

Do  not  forget  the  plain  lesson  that  comes  from  the 
incident  before  us — viz.,  that  the  wisest  thing  a  man  can 


PAUL   AT    CORINTH.  109 

do,  when  he  feels  that  the  wheels  of  his  religious  being 
are  driving  heavily,  is  to  set  himself  doggedly  to  the 
plain,  homely  work  of  daily  life.  Paul  did  not  sit 
and  bemoan  himself  because  he  felt  this  slackening  of 
impulse,  but  he  went  away  to  Aquila,  and  said,  "  Let  us 
set  to  work  and  make  camel's-hair  cloth  and  tents."  Be 
thankful  for  your  homely,  prosaic,  secular  daily  work. 
You  do  not  know  how  many  sickly  fancies  it  saves 
you  from,  and  how  many  breaches  in  the  continuity 
of  your  Christian  feeling  it  may  bridge  over.  It  takes 
you  away  from  thinking  about  yourselves,  and  you  cannot 
think  about  anything  less  profitably  sometimes.  So 
stick  to  your  work  ;  and  if  ever  you  feel,  as  Paul  did, 
"  cast  down,"  be  sure  that  the  workshop,  the  office,  the 
desk,  the  kitchen  will  prevent  you  from  being  "  de- 
stroyed," if  you  give  yourselves  to  the  plain  duties  which 
no  moods  alter,  but  which  can  alter  a  great  many  moods. 

II.  And  now,  note  the  constraining  word. 

I  have  already  said  that  the  return  of  the  two,  who 
had  been  sent  to  see  how  things  were  going  with  the 
recent  converts  in  the  infant  Churches,  brought  the 
Apostle  good  tidings,  and  so  lifted  off  a  great  load  of 
anxiety  from  his  heart.  No  wonder.  He  had  left  raw 
recruits  under  fire,  with  no  captain,  and  he  might  well 
doubt  whether  they  would  keep  their  ranks.  But  they 
did.  So  the  pressure  was  lifted  off,  and  the  pressure 
being  lifted  off,  spontaneously  the  old  impulse  gripped 
him  once  more;  like  a  spring  which  leaps  back  to  its 
ancient  curve  when  some  alien  force  is  taken  from  it.  It 
must  have  been  a  very  deep  and  a  very  habitual  impulse, 
which  thus  instantly  reasserted  itself  the  moment  that 
the  pressure  of  anxiety  was  taken  out  of  the  way. 


110  PAUL  AT   CORINTH. 

The  word  constrained  him.  What  to  do  ?  To  declare 
it.  Paul's  example  brings  up  two  thoughts — that  that 
impulse  may  vary  at  times,  according  to  the  pressure 
of  circumstances,  and  may  even  be  held  in  abeyance 
for  a  while  ;  and  that  if  a  man  is  honestly  and  really 
a  Christian,  as  soon  as  the  incumbent  pressure  is  taken 
away,  he  will  feel,  "  Necessity  is  laid  upon  me,  yea ! 
woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel."  For,  though 
Paul's  sphere  of  work  was  different  from  ours,  his 
obligation  to  work  and  his  impulse  to  work  were  such 
as  are,  or  should  be,  common  to  all  Christians.  The 
impulse  to  utter  the  word  that  we  believe  and  live  by 
seems  to  me  to  be,  in  its  very  nature,  inseparable  from 
earnest  Christian  faith.  All  emotion  demands  ex- 
pression ;  and  if  a  man  has  never  felt  that  he  must 
let  his  Christian  faith  have  vent,  it  is  a  very  bad  sign. 
As  certainly  as  fermentation  or  effervescence  demands 
outgush,  so  certainly  does  emotion  demand  expression. 
We  all  know  that.  The  same  impulse  that  makes  a 
mother  bend  over  her  babe  with  unmeaning  words  and 
tokens  that  seem  to  unsympathetic  onlookers  foolish, 
ought  to  influence  all  Christians  to  speak  the  name 
they  love.  All  conviction  demands  expression.  There 
may  be  truths  which  have  so  little  bearing  upon  human 
life  that  he  who  perceives  them  feels  little  obligation 
to  say  anything  about  them.  But  these  are  the  ex- 
ceptions ;  and  the  more  weighty,  and  the  more  closely 
affectmg  human  interests,  anything  that  we  have  learned 
to  believe  as  truth  is,  the  more  do  we  feel  in  our 
hearts  that,  in  making  us  its  believers,  it  has  made 
us  its  apostles.  Christ's  saying,  "  What  ye  hear  in 
the  ear  that  preach  ye  on  the  housetops,"  expresses  a 


PAUL   AT    CORINTH.  Ill 

universal  truth  which  is  realised  in  many  regions,  and 
ought  to  be  most  emphatically  realised  in  the  Christian. 
For  surely  of  all  the  truths  that  men  can  catch  a  glimpse 
of,  or  grapple  to  their  hearts,  or  store  in  their  under- 
standings, there  are  none  which  bring  with  them  such 
tremendous  consequences,  and  therefore  are  of  so  solemn 
import  to  proclaim  to  all  the  children  of  men,  as  the 
truth  that  we  profess  we  have  received,  of  personal 
salvation  through  Jesus  Christ. 

If  there  never  had  been  a  single  commandment  to 
that  effect,  I  know  not  how  the  Christian  Church  or  the 
Christian  individual  could  have  abstained  from  declaring 
the  great  and  sweet  Name  to  which  it  and  he  owe  so 
much.  I  do  not  care  to  present  this  matter  as  a  com- 
mandment, nor  to  speak  now  of  obligation  or  responsi- 
bility. The  impulse  is  what  I  would  fix  your  attention 
upon.  It  is  inseparable  from  the  Christian  life.  It 
may  vary  in  force,  as  we  see  in  the  incident  before 
us.  It  will  vary  in  grip,  according  as  other  circum- 
stances and  duties  insist  upon  being  attended  to.  The 
form  in  which  it  is  yielded  to  will  vary  indefinitely 
in  individuals.  But  if  they  are  Christian  people  it  is 
always  there. 

Well,  then,  what  about  the  masses  of  so-called 
Christians  that  know  nothing  of  any  such  constraining 
force  ?  And  what  about  the  many  that  know  enough  of 
it  to  make  them  feel  that  they  are  wrong  in  not  yielding 
to  it,  but  not  enough  to  make  their  conduct  be  influenced 
by  it  ?  Brethren,  I  venture  to  believe  that  the  measure 
in  which  this  impulse  to  speak  the  word,  and  use 
direct  efforts  for  somebody's  conversion,  is  felt  by 
Christians,  is  a  very  fair  test  of  the  depth  of  their  own 


112  PAUL  AT   OOEINTH. 

religion.     If  a  vessel  is  half  empty  it  will  not  ran  over. 

If  it  is  fuU  to  the  brim,  the  sparkling  treasure  will  fall 
on  all  sides.  A  weak  plant  may  never  push  its  green 
leaves  above  the  ground,  but  a  strong  one  will  come 
into  the  light.  A  spark  may  be  smothered  in  a  heap 
of  brushwood,  but  a  steady  flame  will  burn  its  way  out. 
If  this  word  has  not  a  grip  of  you,  impelling  you  to 
its  utterance,  I  would  have  you  not  to  be  too  sure  that 
you  have  a  grip  of  it. 

III.  Lastly,  we  have  here  the  witness  to  the  word. 

He  was  constrained  by  the  word,  testifying.^^  Now, 
I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  imposing  too  much  meaning 
upon  a  non-significant  difference  of  expression,  if  I  ask 
you  to  note  the  difference  between  that  phrase  and  the 
one  which  describes  his  previous  activity  ;  "  He  reasoned 
in  the  synagogue  every  Sabbath,  and  tried  to  persuade  " 
the  Jews  and  the  Greeks.  But  when  the  old  impulse 
came  back  in  new  force,  reasoning  was  far  too  cold  a 
method,  and  he  took  to  testifying.  Whether  that  be  so 
or  no,  mark  that  the  witness  of  one's  own  personal  con- 
viction and  experience  is  the  strongest  weapon  that  a 
Christian  can  use.  I  do  not  despise  the  place  of  reason- 
ing, but  arguments  do  not  often  change  opinions;  they 
never  change  hearts.  Logic  and  controversial  discours- 
ing may  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,  but  it  is  in  the 
wilderness.  But  when  a  man  calls  aloud,  "  Come  and 
hear  all  ye,  and  I  will  declare  what  God  hath  done  for 
my  soul "  ;  or  when  he  tells  his  brother,  "  We  have 
found  the  Messias  "  ;  or  when  he  sticks  to  "  One  thing 
I  know,  that,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see "  it  is 
difficult  for  anybody  to  resist,  and  impossible  for  anybody 
to  answer,  that  way  of  testifying. 


PAUL   AT    CORINTH.  Il3 

It  is  a  way  that  we  can  all  adopt  il  we  will.  Chrtstir;;. 
men  and  women  can  all  say  that.  I  do  not  forget  tliafc 
there  are  indirect  ways  of  spreading  the  Gospel.  Suiv 
of  yon  think  that  yon  do  enongh  when  you  give  }o\n 
money  and  your  interest  in  order  to  help  thesf*.  '[on 
can  buy  a  substitute  in  the  militia,  but  you  cannot  b-.v,- 
a  substitute  in  Christ's  service.  You  have  each  omc 
congregation  to  which  you  can  speak,  if  it  is  no  b  ggc ; 
than  Paul's — namely,  two  people,  Aquila  and  Priccilla,. 
What  talks  they  would  have  in  their  lodging,  as 
they  plaited  the  wisps  of  black  hair  into  rough  cloth, 
and  stitched  the  strips  into  tents  !  Aquila  was  not  a 
Christian  when  Paul  picked  him  up,  but  he  became  one 
very  soon  ;  and  it  was  the  preaching  in  the  workshop, 
amidst  the  dust,  that  made  him  one.  If  we  want  to 
speak  about  Christ  we  shall  find  plenty  of  people  to 
speak  to.     "  Ye  are  my  witnesses,  saith  the  Lord." 

Now,  dear  friends,  I  have  only  one  word  more.  I 
have  no  doubt  there  are  some  of  my  hearers  who 
have  been  saying,  "This  sermon  does  not  apply  to 
me  at  all."  Does  it  not?  If  it  does  not,  what  does 
that  mean  ?  It  means  that  you  have  not  the  first 
requisite  for  spreading  the  word — viz.,  personal  faith  in 
the  word,  it  means  that  you  have  put  away,  or  at 
least  neglected  to  take  in,  the  word  and  the  Saviour  of 
whom  it  speaks,  into  your  own  lives.  But  it  does  not 
mean  that  you  have  got  rid  of  the  word  thereby.  It 
will  not  in  that  case  lay  the  grip  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking  upon  you,  but  it  will  not  let  you  go.  It  will 
lay  on  you  a  far  more  solemn  and  awful  clutch,  and, 
like  a  gaoler  with  his  hand  on  the  culprit's  shoulder, 
will  "  constrain "   you  into  the  presence  of  the  Judge. 

8 


114  PAUL   AT    CORINTH. 

You  can  make  it  a  savour  of  lil'e  anto  life,  or  of  death 
unto  death.  And  if  you  do  not  grasp  it,  it  grasps  and 
holds  you.  "  The  word  that  I  speak  unto  him,  the  same 
shall  judge  him  at  the  last  day." 


«  TO  HIM  THAT  HATH  SHALL  BE  GIVEN." 

"Whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abun- 
dance ;  but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  away  even 
that  he  hath." — Matt.  xiii.  12. 

rpHERE  are  several  instances  in  the  Gospels  of  our 
X  Lord's  repetition  of  sayings  which  seem  to  have 
been,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  favourites  with 
Him  ;  as,  for  instance,  "  There  are  first  which  shall  be 
last,  and  there  are  last  which  shall  be  first "  ;  or,  again, 
"  The  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  master,  nor  the 
disciple  than  his  lord."  My  text  is  one  of  these.  It  is 
here  said  as  part  of  the  explanation  why  He  chose  to 
speak  in  parables,  in  order  that  the  truth,  revealed  to  the 
diligent  and  attentive,  might  be  hidden  from  the  careless. 
Again,  we  find  it  in  two  other  Gospels,  in  a  somewhat 
similar  connection,  though  with  a  different  application, 
where  Jesus  enunciates  it  as  the  basis  of  His  warning, 
"  Take  heed  how  " — or,  in  another  version,  "  what " — 
"  ye  hear."  Again,  He  employs  it  in  this  Gospel  in  the 
parable  of  the  talents,  as  explaining  the  principle  on 
which  the  retribution  to  the  slothful  servant  was  meted 
out  And  we  find  it  yet  once  more  in  the  parable  of  the 
pounds  in  Luke's  Gospel,  which,  though  entirely  different 
in  conception  and  purpose  from  that  of  the  talents,  is  iden- 
tical in  the  portion  connected  with  the  slothful  servant. 

115 


116        "to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given." 

So,  there  are  two  very  distinct  directions  in  which  this 
saying  looks,  as  it  was  used  by  our  Lord — one  in  refer- 
ence to  the  attitude  of  men  towards  the  Revelation  of 
God,  and  one  in  reference  to  the  solemn  subject  of 
future  retribution.  I  wish,  now,  mainly  to  try  and 
illustrate  the  great  law  which  is  set  forth  here,  and  to 
follow  out  the  various  spheres  of  its  operation,  and 
estimate  the  force  of  its  influence.  For  I  think  that 
large  and  very  needful  lessons  for  us  all  may  be  drawn 
therefrom.  The  principle  of  my  text  shapes  all  life. 
It  is  a  paradox,  but  it  is  a  deep  truth.  It  sounds  harsh 
and  unjust,  but  it  contains  the  very  essence  of  righteous 
retribution.  The  paradox  is  meant  to  spur  attention, 
curiosity,  and  inquiry.  The  key  to  it  lies  here — to  use 
is  to  have.  There  is  a  possession  which  is  no  possession. 
That  I  have  rights  of  property  in  a  thing,  as  contra- 
distinguished to  your  rights,  does  not  make  it,  in  any 
deep  ana  real  sense,  mine.  What  I  use  I  have  ;  and 
all  else  is,  as  one  of  the  other  Evangelists  has  it,  but 
"  seeming  "  to  have. 

So  much,  then,  by  way  of  explanation  of  our  text. 
Now,  let  me  just  ask  you  to  come  with  me  into  two  or 
three  of  the  regions  where  we  shall  find  illastrations  of 
its  working. 

I.  Take  the  application  of  this  principle  to  common 
life. 

The  lowest  of  these  are  material  possessions.  It  is 
a  complaint  that  is  made  against  the  present  social 
arrangements  and  distribution  of  wealth,  that  money 
makes  money  ;  that  wealth  has  a  tendency  to  clot  ;  the 
rich  man  to  get  richer,  and  the  poor  man  to  get  poorer. 
Jugt  as  in  a  basin  of  water  when  the  plug  is  out,  and 


"to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."         117 

circular  motion  is  set  up,  the  little  bits  of  foreign  matter 
that  may  be  there  all  tend  to  get  together,  so  it  is  in 
regard  to  these  external  possessions.  "  To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given  "  ;  and  people  grumble  about  that 
and  say,  "  It  never  rains  but  it  pours,  and  the  man 
that  needs  more  money  least  gets  it  most  easily."  Of 
course.  Treasure  used  grows  ;  treasure  hoarded  rusts  and 
dwindles.  The  millionaire  will  double  his  fortune  by  a 
successful  speculation.  The  man  with  half-a-dozen  large 
shops  drives  the  poor  little  tradesman  out  of  the  field. 
So  it  is  all  round  ;  "  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given  ; 
but  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  even  that 
he  hath." 

Next,  go  a  step  higher.  Look  at  how  this  law  works 
in  regard  of  powers  of  body.  That  is  a  threadbare  old 
illustration.  The  blacksmith's  arm  we  have  all  heard 
about  J  the  sailor's  eye,  the  pianist's  wrist,  the  juggler's 
fingers,  the  surgeon's  deft  hand — all  these  come  by  use. 
"  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."  And  the  same  man 
who  has  cultivated  one  set  of  organs  to  an  almost 
miraculous  fineness  or  delicacy  or  strength  will,  by 
the  operation  of  the  other  half  of  the  same  principle, 
have  all  but  atrophied  another  set.  So  with  the  black- 
smith's arm,  which  has  grown  muscular  at  the  expense 
of  his  legs  ;  part  of  the  physical  being  has  monopolised 
what  might  have  been  distributed  throughout  the  whole. 
Use  is  strength ;  use  makes  growth.  We  have  what 
we  employ.  And  even  in  regard  of  our  bodily  frame  the 
organs  that  we  do  not  use  we  carry  about  with  us  rather 
as  a  weight  attached  to  us  than  as  a  possession. 

Again,  come  a  little  higher.  This  great  principle 
largely  goes  to  determine  our  position  in  the  world  and 


118     *•  TO  HIM  THAT  HATH  SHALL  BE  GIVEN.'* 

onr  work.  The  man  that  can  do  a  thing  gets  it  to  do. 
In  the  long  run  the  tools  come  to  the  hand  that  can  use 
them.  So  here  is  one  medical  man's  consulting-room 
crammed  full  of  patients,  and  his  neighbour  next  door 
has  scarcely  one.  The  whole  world  runs  to  read  A,  B, 
or  C's  books.  The  briefless  barrister  complains  that 
there  is  no  middle  course  between  having  nothing  to 
do  and  being  overwhelmed  with  briefs.  "  To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given  " — the  man  can  do  a  thing,  and  he 
gets  it  to  do — "  and  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be 
taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath."  That  law  largely 
settles  every  man's  place  in  the  world. 

Let  us  come  still  higher.  The  same  law  has  much — 
not  all,  but  much — to  do  in  making  men's  characters. 
For  it  operates  in  its  most  intense  fashion,  and  with 
results  most  blessed  or  most  disastrous,  in  the  inner  life. 
The  great  example  that  I  would  adduce  is  conscience. 
Use  it ;  obey  it  ;  listen  for  its  voice  ;  never  thwart 
it,  and  it  grows  and  grows  and  grows,  and  becomes 
more  and  more  sensitive,  more  and  more  educated,  more 
and  more  sovereign  in  its  decisions.  Neglect  it ;  still 
more,  go  in  its  teeth,  and  it  dwindles  and  dwindles  and 
dwindles  ;  and  I  suppose  it  is  possible — though  one  would 
fain  hope  that  it  is  a  very  exceptional  case — for  a  man, 
by  long-continued  indifference  to  the  voice  within  that 
says  "  Thou  shalt "  or  "  Thou  shalt  not,"  to  come  at  last 
to  never  hearing  it  at  all,  or  to  its  never  speaking  at  all. 

It  is  "  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron,"  says  one  of  the 
Apostles  ;  and  in  seared  flesh  there  is  no  feeling  any 
more.  Are  any  of  you,  dear  friends,  bringing  about 
such  a  state  ?  Are  you  doing  what  you  know  you  ought 
not  to  do  ?    Then  you  will  be  less  and  less  troubled  as 


"to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."         119 

the  days  go  on  ;  and,  by  neglecting  the  voice,  you  will 
come  at  last  to  be  like  the  profligate  woman  in  the  book 
of  Proverbs,  who,  after  her  sin,  "  wipes  her  mouth  and 
says,  I  have  done  no  harm."  Do  you  think  that  is  a 
desirable  state — to  put  out  the  eyes  of  your  soul,  to  stifle 
the  nearest  approach  to  God's  voice  that  you  will  ever 
hear  ?  Do  you  not  think  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  get 
the  blessed  half  of  this  law  on  your  side,  instead  of  the 
dreadful  one  ?  Listen  to  that  voice.  Never,  as  you 
value  yourselves,  neglect  it.  Cultivate  the  habit  of 
waiting  for  its  monitions,  its  counsels,  prohibitory  or 
commendatory,  and  then  you  will  have  done  much  to 
secure  that  your  spirit  shall  be  enriched  by  the  operations 
of  this  wide-spread  law. 

Take  another  illustration.  People  who,  by  circum- 
stances, are  placed  in  some  position  of  dependence  and 
subordination,  where  they  have  seldom  to  exercise  the 
initiative  of  choice,  but  just  to  do  what  they  are  bid,  by 
degrees  all  but  lose  the  power  of  making  up  their  minds 
about  anything.  And  so  a  slave  set  free  is  proverbially 
a  helpless  creature,  like  a  bit  of  driftwood,  and  children 
who  have  been  too  long  kept  in  a  position  of  pupilage 
and  subordination,  when  they  are  sent  into  the  world 
are  apt  to  turn  out  very  feeble  creatures,  for  want  of  a 
good,  strong  backbone  of  will  in  them.  So,  many  a 
woman  that  has  been  accustomed  to  leave  everything  in 
her  husband's  hands,  when  the  clods  fall  on  his  coffin 
finds  herself  utterly  helpless  and  bewildered,  just  because 
in  the  long,  happy  years  she  never  found  it  necessary 
to  exercise  her  own  judgment  or  her  own  will  about 
practical  matters. 

So  do  not  get  into  the  habit  of  letting  circumstances 


120         "to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given." 

settle  what  you  are  going  to  do,  or  yon  will  lose  the 
power  of  dominating  them,  before  very  long.  And  if  a 
man  for  years  leaves  himself,  as  it  were,  to  be  guided  by 
the  stream  of  circnmstances,  like  long  green  weeds  in  a 
river,  he  will  lose  the  power  of  determining  his  own  fate, 
and  the  Will  will  die  clean  out  of  him.  Cultivate  it,  and 
it  will  grow. 

Again,  this  same  principle  largely  settles  our  knowledge, 
our  convictions,  the  operations  and  the  furniture  of  our 
understandings.  If  a  man  holds  any  truth  slackly,  or, 
in  the  case  of  truths  that  are  meant  to  influence  life  and 
conduct,  does  not  let  it  influence  these,  then  that  is  a 
kind  of  having  truth  that  is  sure  to  end  in  losing  it. 
If  you  want  to  lose  your  convictions  grasp  them  loosely — 
do  not  act  upon  them,  do  not  take  them  for  guides  of 
your  life — and  they  will  soon  relieve  you  of  their  un- 
welcome presence.  If  you  wish  mind  and  knowledge  to 
grow,  grip  with  a  grip  of  iron  what  you  do  know,  and 
let  it  dominate  you,  as  it  ought.  He  that  truly  has  his 
learning  will  learn  more,  and  pile  by  slow  degrees  stone 
upon  stone,  until  the  building  is  complete. 

So,  dear  friends,  here,  in  these  illustrations,  which 
might  have  been  indefinitely  enlarged,  we  see  the  working 
of  a  principle  which  has  much  to  do  in  making  men  what 
they  are.  What  you  use  you  increase  ;  what  you  leave 
unused  you  lose.  There  are  grey  heads  in  this  chapel 
to-night  who,  when  they  were  young  men,  had  dreams 
and  aspirations  that  they  bitterly  smile  at  now.  There 
are  men  here  who  began  life  with  possibilities  that  have 
never  blossomed  or  fruited,  but  have  died  on  the  stem. 
Why?  Because  they  were  so  much  occupied  with  the 
vulpine  craft  of  making  their  position  and  their  "  pile," 


"to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."         121 

that  generous  emotions  and  noble  sympathies  and  lofty 
aspirations,  intellectual  or  otherwise,  were  all  neglected, 
and  so  they  are  dead  ;  and  the  men  are  the  poorer 
incalculably,  because  of  what  has  thus  been  shed  away 
from  them.  You  make  your  characters  by  the  parts 
of  yourselves  that  you  choose  to  cultivate  and  employ. 
Do  you  think  that  God  gave  us  all  of  an  intellectual 
and  emotional  and  moral  kind  that  is  in  us  in  order  that 
it  might  be  all  used  up  in  Portland  Street  ?  A  very 
much  scantier  outfit  would  have  done  for  all  that  is 
wanted  there.  But  there  are  abortive  and  dormant 
organs  in  your  spiritual  nature,  as  there  are  in  the 
corporeal,  which  tell  you  what  you  were  meant  for,  and 
which  it  is  your  sin  to  leave  undeveloped.  Brethren, 
the  law  of  my  text  shapes  us  in  the  two  ways,  that 
whatever  we  cultivate,  be  it  noble  or  be  it  bestial,  will 
grow,  and  whatever  we  repress  or  neglect  will  die. 
Choose  which  of  the  two  halves  of  yourselves  you  will 
foster,  and  on  which  you  will  frown. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  first  general  application  uf 
these  words.  Now,  let  me  turn  for  a  moment  to  an- 
other. 

II.  I  would  note,  secondly,  the  application  of  this 
two-fold  law  in  regard  to  God's  revelation  of  Himself. 

That  is  the  bearing  of  it  in  the  immediate  context 
from  which  our  text  is  taken.  Our  Lord  explains  that 
teaching  by  parable — a  transparent  veil  over  a  truth — 
was  adopted  in  order  that  the  veiled  truth  might  be  a 
test  as  well  as  a  revelation.  And  although  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Christian  revelation  has  been  made  in 
any  degree  less  plain  and  obvious  than  it  could  have 
been   made,  I  cannot  but  recognise  the  fact   that  the 


122         "to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given." 

necessities  of  the  case  demand  that,  when  God  speaks 
to  us,  He  should  speak  in  such  a  fashion  as  that  it  is 
possible  to  say,  "  Tush  !  It  is  not  God  that  is  speaking  ; 
it  is  only  Eli !  "  and  so  to  turn  about  the  young  Samuel's 
mistake  the  other  way.  I  do  not  believe  that  God  has 
diminished  the  evidence  of  His  Revelation  in  order  to 
try  us  ;  but  I  do  maintain  that  the  Revelation  which  He 
has  made  does  come  to  us,  and  must  come  to  us,  in  such 
a  form  as  that,  not  by  mathematical  demonstration  but 
by  moral  affinity,  we  shall  be  led  to  recognise  and  to 
bow  to  it.  He  that  will  be  ignorant,  let  him  be  ignorant, 
and  he  that  will  come  asking  for  truth,  it  will  flood  his 
eyeballs  with  a  blessed  illumination.  The  veil  will  bul 
make  more  attractive  to  some  eyes  the  outlines  of  the 
fair  form  beneath  it,  whilst  others  are  offended  at  it  and 
say,  "  Unless  we  see  the  truth  undraped,  we  will  nt>t 
believe  that  it  is  truth  at  all." 

So,  brethren,  let  me  remind  you — what  is  really  but  a 
repetition  in  reference  to  another  subject — of  what  I  have 
already  said,  that  in  regard  to  God's  speech  to  men,  and 
especially  in  regard  to  what  I,  for  my  part,  believe  to  be 
the  complete  and  ultimate  and  perfect  speech  of  God 
to  men,  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour,  the  principle  of  my 
text  holds  good. 

"  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."  If  you  will  make 
that  truth  your  own  by  loyal  faith  and  honest  obedience, 
if  you  will  grapple  it  to  your  heart,  then  you  will  learn 
more  and  more.  Whatever  tiny  corner  of  the  great 
whole  you  have  grasped,  hold  on  by  that  and  draw  it 
into  yourselves,  and  you  will  by  degrees  get  the  entire, 
glorious,  golden  web  to  wrap  round  you.  "  If  any  man 
wills  to  do  His  will  he  shall  know."    That  is  Christ's 


"to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."         123 

promise  ;  and  it  will  be  fulfilled  to  ns  all.  "  To  him 
that  hath  shall  be  given." 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  have  Christian  truth  and 
Christ,  who  is  the  Truth,  in  the  fashion  in  which  so 
many  of  us  have  it  and  Him,  as  a  form,  as  a  mere 
intellectual  possession,  so  that  we  can,  when  we  go  to 
church,  repeat  the  creed  without  feeling  that  we  are 
telling  a  lie,  but  when  we  go  to  niarket  do  not  carry  the 
Commandments  with  us — if  that  is  our  Christianity,  then 
it  will  dribble  away  into  nothing.  We  shall  not  be 
much  the  poorer  for  the  loss  of  such  a  sham  possession, 
but  it  will  go,  and  the  evidence  of  it  will  go.  It  drops 
out  of  the  hands  that  are  not  clasped  to  hold  it.  It 
is  just  that  a  thing  so  neglected  shall  some  day  be  a 
thing  withdrawn.  So,  in  regard  to  Revelation  and  a 
man's  perception  and  reception  of  it,  my  text  holds  good 
in  both  its  halves. 

III.  Lastly,  look  at  the  application  of  these  words  in 
the  future. 

That  is  our  Lord's  own  application  of  them,  twice  out 
of  the  five  times  in  which  the  saying  appears  in  the 
three  Gospels  :  in  the  parable  of  the  talents  and  in  the 
parallel  portion  of  the  parable  of  the  pounds.  I  do  not 
venture  into  the  regions  of  speculation  about  that  future, 
but  there  come  clearly  enough  out  from  the  words 
before  us  two  aspects  of  it.  The  man  with  the  ten 
talents  got  more  ;  the  man  that  had  hid  the  talent  or 
the  pound  in  the  ground  was  deprived  of  that  which 
he  had  not  used. 

Now,  with  regard  to  the  former  there  is  no  difficulty 
in  translating  the  representations  of  the  parables, 
sustained  as  they  are  by  distinct   statements   of  other 


124     "  TO  HIM  THAT  HATH  SHALL  BE  GIVEN. 

portions  of  Scripture.  They  come  to  this,  that,  for  the 
life  beyond,  indefinite  progress  in  all  that  is  noble  and 
blessed  and  godlike  in  heart  and  character,  in  intellect 
and  power,  are  certain ;  that  faith,  hope,  love  here 
cultivated  but  putting  forth  few  blossoms  and  small 
fruitage,  there,  in  that  higher  house  where  these  be 
planted,  will  flourish  in  the  courts  of  the  Lord,  and 
will  bear  fruit  abundantly  ;  that  here  the  few  things 
faithfully  administered  will  be  succeeded  yonder  by  the 
many  things  royally  ruled  over  ;  that  here  one  small 
coin,  as  it  were,  is  put  into  our  palm — namely,  the 
present  blessedness  and  peace  and  strength  and  purity 
of  a  Christian  life  ;  and  that  yonder  we  possess  the 
inheritance  of  which  what  we  have  here  is  but  the 
earnest.  It  used  to  be  the  custona  when  a  servant  was 
hired  for  the  next  term-day  to  give  him  one  of  the 
smallest  coins  of  the  realm  as  what  was  called  "  arles  " 
— wages  in  advance,  to  seal  the  bargain.  Similarly  in 
buying  an  estate  a  bit  of  turt  was  passed  over  to  the 
purchaser.  We  get  the  earnest  here  of  the  broad  acres 
of  the  inheritance  above.  "  To  him  that  hath  shall  be 
given." 

And  the  other  side  of  the  same  principle  works  in 
some  terrible  ways  that  we  cannot  speak  about.  "  From 
him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which 
he  hath."  I  have  spoken  of  the  terrible  analogy  to  this 
solemn  prospect  which  is  presented  us  by  the  imperfect 
experiences  of  earth.  And  when  we  see  in  others,  or 
discover  in  ourselves,  how  it  is  possible  for  unused  faculties 
to  die  entirely  out,  I  think  we  shall  feel  that  there  is  a 
solemn  background  of  very  awful  truth,  in  the  represen- 
tation  of  what  befell   the  unfaithful   servant.      Hopes 


"to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given."        125 

annourished  are  gone  ;  opportunities  unimproved — gone  , 
capacities  undeveloped — gone  ;  fold  after  fold,  as  it 
were,  peeled  off  the  soul,  until  there  is  nothing  left  but 
the  naked  self,  pauperised  and  empty-handed  for  ever- 
more. "  Take  it  from  him  ; "  he  never  was  the  better 
for  it  ;  he  never  used  it ;  he  shall  have  it  no  longer. 

Brethren,  cultivate  the  highest  part  of  yourselves, 
and  see  to  it  that,  by  faith  and  obedience,  you  truly 
have  the  Saviour  whom  you  have  by  the  hearing  of  the 
ear  and  by  outward  profession.  And  then  death  will 
come  to  you,  as  a  nurse  might  to  a  child  that  came  in 
from  the  fields  with  its  hands  full  of  worthless  weeds 
and  grasses,  and  empty  them  in  order  to  fill  them  with 
the  flowers  that  never  fade.  l?ou  can  choose  whether 
death — and  life,  too,  for  that  matter — shall  be  the  porter 
that  will  open  to  you  the  door  of  the  treasure-house  of 
God,  or  the  robber  that  will  strip  you  of  misused  oppor- 
tunities and  unused  talents. 


"ALL    THINGS    ARE    YOURS." 

"  They  fought  from  heaven ;  the  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against 
Sisera." — Judges  v.  20. 

"  Thou  shalt  be  in  league  with  the  stones  of  the  field :  and  the 
beasts  of  the  field  shall  be  at  peace  with  thee." — Job  v.  23. 

THESE  two  poetical  fragments  present  the  same  truth 
on  opposite  sides.  The  first  of  them  comes  from 
Deborah's  triumphant  chant.  The  singer  identifies  God 
with  the  cause  of  Israel,  and  declares  that  heaven  itself 
fought  against  those  who  fought  against  God's  people. 
There  may  be  an  allusion  to  the  tempest  which  Jewish 
tradition  tells  us  burst  over  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  or 
there  may  be  some  trace  of  ancient  astrological  notions, 
or  the  words  may  simply  be  an  elevated  way  of  saying 
that  Heaven  fought  for  Israel.  The  silent  stars,  as  they 
•-wept  on  their  paths  through  the  sky,  advanced  like 
an  avenging  host,  embattled  against  the  foes  of  Israel 
and  of  God.  All  things  fight  against  the  man  that 
fights  against  God. 

The  other  text  gives  the  other  side  of  the  same  truth. 
One  of  Job's  friends  is  rubbing  salt  into  his  wounds  by 
insisting  on  the  commonplace,  which  needs  a  great  many 
explanations  and  limitations  before  it  can  be  accepted  as 
true,  that  sin  is  the  cause  of  sorrow,  and  that  righteous- 
ness brings  happiness  ;  and  in  the  course  of  trying  to 
establish    this    heartless   thesis   to    a    heavy   heart   he 

126 


"ALL  THINGS   ABB   TOUBS.'*  127 

breaks  into  a  strain  of  the  loftiest  poetry  in  describing 
the  blessedness  of  the  righteous.  All  things,  animate 
and  inanimate,  are  upon  his  side.  The  ground,  which 
Genesis  tells  rs  is  cnrsed  for  his  sake,  becomes  his  ally, 
and  the  very  creatures  whom  man's  sin  set  at  enmity 
against  him  are  at  peace  with  him.  All  things  are  the 
friends  and  servants  of  him  who  is  the  friend  and 
servant  of  God. 

I.  So,  putting  these  two  texts  together,  we  have  first 
the  great  conviction  to  which  religion  clings,  that  God 
being  on  our  side  all  things  are  for  us,  and  not  against 
us. 

Now,  that  is  the  standing  faith  of  the  Old  Testament, 
which  no  doubt  was  more  easily  held  in  those  days, 
because,  if  we  accept  its  teaching,  we  shall  recognise 
that  Israel  lived  under  a  system  in  so  far  supernatural 
as  that  moral  goodness  and  material  prosperity  were  a 
great  deal  more  closely  and  indissolubly  connected  than 
they  are  to-day.  So,  many  a  psalm  and  many  a 
prophet  break  out  into  apostrophes,  warranted  by  the 
whole  history  of  Israel,  and  declaring  how  blessed  are 
the  men  who,  apart  from  all  other  defences  and  sources 
of  prosperity,  have  God  for  their  help  and  Him  for 
their  hope. 

But  we  are  not  to  dismiss  this  conviction  as  belonging 
only  to  a  system  where  the  supernatural  comes  in,  as  it 
does  in  the  Old  Testament  history,  and  as  antiquated  under 
a  dispensation  such  as  that  in  which  we  live.  For  the 
New  Testament  is  not  a  whit  behind  the  Old  in  insisting 
upon  this  truth.  "  All  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God."  "All  things  are  yours,  and  ye 
are  Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's."    "  Who  is  he  that  will 


128  "all  things  are  yours," 

harm  you  if  ye  be  followers  of  that  which  is  good?" 
The  New  Testament  is  committed  to  the  same  conviction 
as  that  to  which  the  faith  of  Old  Testament  saints  clung 
as  the  sheet  anchor  of  their  lives. 

That  conviction  cannot  be  strack  out  of  the  creed  of 
any  man,  who  believes  in  the  God  to  whom  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament  alike  bear  witness.  For  it  rests  upon 
this  plain  principle,  that  all  this  great  universe  is  not  a 
(;haos,  but  a  cosmos,  that  all  these  forces  and  creatures 
are  not  a  rabble,  but  an  ordered  host. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  that  great  Name  by  which, 
from  of  old,  God  in  His  relations  to  the  whole  universe 
has  been  described — the  Lord  of  Hosts  ?  Who  are  the 
"  hosts "  of  which  He  is  "  the  Lord,"  and  to  whom, 
as  the  centurion  said,  He  says  to  this  one,  "  Go  I " 
and  he  goeth  ;  and  to  another,  "  Come  1 "  and  he  cometh  ; 
and  to  another,  "  Do  this  1  "  and  he  doeth  it  ?  Who  are 
"  the  hosts  "  ?  Not  only  these  beings  who  are  dimly 
revealed  to  us  as  rational  and  intelligent,  who  "  excel  in 
strength,"  because  they  "  hearken  to  the  voice  of  His 
word,"  but  also  in  the  ranks  of  that  great  army  are 
embattled  all  the  forces  of  the  universe,  and  all  things 
living  or  dead.  "  All  are  Thy  servants  ; "  "  they  continue 
this  day  " — angels,  stars,  creatures  of  earth — "  according 
to  Thy  ordinances." 

And  if  it  be  true  that  the  All  is  an  ordered  whole,  and 
all  are  obedient  to  the  touch  and  to  the  will  of  that 
Divine  Commander,  then  all  His  servants  must  be  on  the 
same  side,  and  cannot  turn  their  arms  against  each  other. 
As  an  old  hymn  says  about  another  subject— 

"All  the  servants  of  our  King 
In  heaven  and  earth  are  ono.* 


"  ALL   THINGS   ARE    YOURS."  129 

And  none  of  them  cau  injure,  wonnd,  or  slay  a  fellow- 
servant.  If  all  are  travelling  in  the  same  direction  there 
can  be  no  collision.  If  all  are  enlisted  nnder  the  same 
standard  they  can  never  tnrn  their  weapons  against  each 
other.  If  God  sways  all  things,  then  all  things  that 
God  sways  must  be  on  the  side  of  the  men  that  are  on 
the  side  of  God.  "  Thou  shalt  make  a  leag-ne  with  the 
stones  of  the  field  :  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  shall  be 
at  peace  with  thee." 

II.  Note  the  difficulties  arising  from  experience,  in 
the  way  of  holding  fast  by  this  conviction  of  faith. 

The  grim  facts  of  the  world,  seen  from  their  lowest 
level,  seem  to  shatter  it  to  atoms.  Talk  about  "  the 
stars  in  their  courses  fighting  "  for  or  against  anybody  1 
In  one  aspect  it  is  superstition,  in  another  aspect  it  is 
a  dream  and  an  illusion.  The  prose  truth  is  that  they 
shine  down,  silent,  pitiless,  cold,  indifferent,  on  battle- 
fields or  on  peacefr:;  homes  ;  and  the  moonlight  is  as 
pure  when  it  -falls  upon  broken  hearts  as  when  it  falls 
upon  glad  ones.  Nature  is  utterly  indifferent  to  the 
moral  or  the  religious  character  of  its  victims.  It  goes 
on  its  way  unswerving  and  pitiless  ;  and  whether  the 
man  that  stands  in  its  path  is  good  or  bad,  it  matters 
not.  If  he  gets  into  a  typhoon  he  will  be  wrecked  ;  if 
he  tumbles  over  Niagara  he  will  be  drowned.  And  what 
has  become  of  all  the  talk  about  an  embattled  universe 
on  the  side  of  goodness,  in  the  face  of  the  plain  facts  of 
life — of  nature's  indifference,  nature's  cruelty,  which  has 
led  some  men  to  believe  in  two  sovereign  powers,  one 
beneficent  and  one  malicious,  and  has  led  others  to  say, 
"  God  is  a  superfluous  hypothesis,  and  to  believe  in 
Him  brings  more   enigmas   than  it  solves,"  and  which 

9 


130  "all  things  abb  youbs." 

has  led  others  to  say,  "  Why,  why,  if  there  is  a  God, 
does  it  look  as  if  either  He  was  not  all-powerful,  or  was 
not  all-merciful  ?  "  Nature  has  but  ambiguous  evidence 
to  give  in  support  of  this  conviction. 

Then,  if  we  turn  to  what  we  call  Providence  and  its 
mysteries,  the  very  book  of  Job,  from  which  my  second 
text  is  taken,  is  one  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  grapple 
with  the  difficulty  and  to  untie  the  knot  ;  and  I  suppose 
everybody  will  admit  that,  whatever  may  be  the  solution 
which  is  suggested  by  that  enigmatical  book,  the 
solution  is  by  no  means  a  complete  one,  though  it  is  as 
complete  as  the  state  of  religious  knowledge  at  the  time 
at  which  the  book  was  written  made  possible  to  be 
attained.  The  seventy-third  psalm  shows  that  even  in 
that  old  time  when,  as  I  have  said,  supernatural 
sanctions  were  introduced  into  the  ordinary  dealings  of 
life,  the  difficulties  that  cropped  up  were  great  enough 
to  bring  a  devout  heart  to  a  stand,  and  to  make  the 
Psalmist  say,  "  My  feet  were  almost  gone  ;  my  steps 
had  weU-nigh  slipped."  Providence,  with  all  its  depths 
and  mysteries,  often  to  our  aching  hearts  seems  in  our 
own  lives  to  contradict  that  truth,  and  when  we  look  out 
over  the  sadness  of  humanity,  still  more  does  it  seem 
impossible  for  us  to  hold  fast  by  the  faith  "that  all 
which  we  behold  is  fall  of  blessings.*' 

I  doubt  not  that  there  are  many  in  this  audience 
whose  lives,  shadowed,  darkened,  hemmed  in,  perplexed, 
or  made  solitary  for  ever,  seem  to  them  to  be  mys- 
teries hard  to  reconcile  with  this  cheerful  faith  upon 
which  I  am  trying  to  insist.  Brethren,  cling  to  it 
in  the  darkness.  Be  sure  of  this,  that  amongst  all 
our  mercies  there  are  none  more  truly  merciful  than 


"all  things  aeb  youes."  131 

these  forms  which  come  to  us  shrouded  in  dark  gar- 
ments, and  in  questionable  shapes.  Let  nothing  rob 
us  of  the  confidence  that  "  all  things  work  together 
for  good." 

III.  I  come,  lastly,  to  consider  the  higher  form  in 
which  this  conviction  is  true  for  ever. 

I  have  said  that  the  facts  of  life  seem  often  to  us,  and 
are  felt  often  by  some  of  us,  to  shatter  it  to  atoms  ;  to 
riddle  it  through  and  through  with  shot.  But,  if  we 
bring  the  Pattern-life  to  bear  upon  the  illumination  of 
all  life,  and  if  we  learn  the  lessons  of  the  Cradle  and  the 
Cross,  and  rise  to  the  view  of  human  life  which  emerges 
from  the  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  then  we  get  back  the 
old  conviction,  transfigured  indeed,  but  firmer  than  ever. 
We  have  to  alter  the  point  of  view.  Everything  depends 
on  the  point  of  view,  always.  We  have  to  alter  one  or 
two  definitions.  Definitions  come  first  in  geometry  and 
in  everything  else.  Get  them  right,  and  you  will  get 
your  theorems  and  problems  right. 

So,  looking  at  life  in  the  light  of  Christ,  we  have  to 
give  new  contents  to  the  two  words  "  good  "  and  "  evil," 
and  a  new  meaning  to  the  two  words  "  for "  and 
"  against."  And  when  we  do  that,  then  the  difiiculties 
straighten  themselves  out,  and  there  are  not  any  more 
knots,  but  all  is  plain  ;  and  the  old  faith  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  reposed  very  largely  upon  abnormal 
and  extraordinary  conditions  of  life,  comes  back  in  a 
still  nobler  form,  as  possible  to  be  held  by  us  amidst 
the  common-place  of  our  daily  existence. 

For  everything  is  my  friend,  is  for  me  and  not  against 
me,  that  helps  me  nearer  to  God.  To  live  for  Him,  to 
live  with  Him,  to  be  conscious  ever  of  communion  with 


132  "all  things  aeb  youes." 

Himself,  to  feel  the  toucli  of  His  hand  on  my  hand,  and 
the  pressure  of  His  breast  against  mine,  at  all  moments  of 
my  life,  is  my  true  and  the  highest  good.  And  if  it  is  true 
that  the  river  of  the  water  of  life  which  flows  from  the 
Throne  of  God  is  the  only  draught  that  can  ever  satisfy 
the  immortal  thirst  of  a  soul,  then  whatever  drives  me 
away  from  the  cisterns,  and  to  the  fountain,  is  on  my  side. 
Better  to  dwell  in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  where  no  water 
is,  if  it  makes  me  long  for  the  water  that  rises  at  the 
gate  of  the  true  Bethlehem — the  house  of  bread — than 
to  dwell  in  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  and 
well  watered  in  every  part.  If  the  cup  that  I  would 
fain  lift  to  my  lips  has  poison  in  it,  or  if  its  sweetness 
is  making  me  lose  my  relish  for  the  pure  and  tasteless 
water  that  flows  from  the  Throne  of  God,  there  can 
be  no  truer  friend 'than  that  calamity,  as  men  call  it, 
which  strikes  the  cup  from  my  hands,  and  shivers  the 
glass  before  I  have  raised  it  to  my  lips.  Everything 
is  my  friend  that  helps  me  towards  God. 

Everything  is  my  friend  that  leads  me  to  submission 
and  obedience.  The  joy  of  life,  and  the  perfection  of 
human  nature,  is  an  absolutely  submitted  will,  identified 
with  the  Divine,  both  in  regard  to  doing  and  to  enduring. 
And  whatever  tends  to  make  my  will  flexible,  so  that 
it  corresponds  to  all  the  sinuosities,  so  to  speak,  of 
the  Divine  will,  and  fits  into  all  its  bends  and  turns, 
is  a  blessing  to  me.  The  raw  hides,  stifi"  with  dirt 
and  blood,  are  put  into  a  bath  of  bitter  infusion  of 
oak-bark.  What  for?  For  the  same  end  as  when 
they  are  taken  out  they  are  scraped  with  sharp  steels, 
— that  they  may  become  flexible.  When  that  is  done 
the  useless  hide  is  worth  something. 


"  ALL    THINGS    ARE    YOURS.''  133 

**  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how ; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  Thine." 

And  whatever  helps  me  to  that  is  my  friend. 

Everything  is  a  friend  to  the  man  that  loves  God,  in 
a  far  sweeter  and  deeper  sense  than  it  can  ever  be  to 
any  other.  Like  a  sudden  burst  of  sunshine  upon 
a  gloomy  landscape,  the  light  of  union  with  God  and 
friendship  with  Him  flooding  my  daily  life  flashes  it 
all  up  into  brightness.  The  dark  ribbon  of  the  river 
that  went  creeping  through  the  black  copses,  when 
the  sun  glints  upon  it,  gleams  up  into  links  of  silver, 
and  the  trees  by  its  bank  blaze  out  into  green  and 
gold.  Brethren,  "  who  follows  pleasure  follows  pain  "  ; 
who  follows  God  finds  pleasure  following  Him.  There 
can  be  no  surer  way  to  set  the  world  against  me  than 
to  try  to  make  it  for  me,  and  to  make  it  my  all.  They 
tell  us  that  if  you  want  to  count  those  stars  that,  "  like 
a  swarm  of  fire-flies  tangled  in  a  silver  braid,"  make  up 
the  Pleiades,  the  surest  way  to  see  the  greatest  number 
of  them  is  to  look  a  little  on  one  side  of  them.  Look 
away  from  the  joys  and  friendships  of  creatural  things 
right  up  to  God,  and  you  will  see  these  sparkling  and 
dancing  in  the  skies,  as  you  never  see  them  when  you 
gaze  at  them  alone.  Make  them  second  and  they  are 
good  and  on  your  side.  Make  them  first,  and  they 
will  turn  to  be  your  enemies  and  fight  against  you. 

This  conviction  will  be  established  still  more  irre- 
fragably  and  wonderfully  in  that  future.  Nothing  lasts 
but  goodness.  "  He  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth 
for  ever."  To  oppose  it  is  like  stretching  a  piece  of 
pack-thread  across  the  rails  before  the  express  comes  ; 
or  putting  up  some  thin  wooden  partition  on  the  beach 


134  "all  things   ABE   TOUBS." 

on  one  of  the  Western  Hebrides,  SKposed  to  the  whole 
roll  of  the  Atlantic,  which  will  be  battered  into  ruin 
by  the  first  winter's  storm.  So  is  the  end  of  all  those 
who  set  themselves  against  God. 

But  there  comes  a  future  in  which,  as  dim  hints  tell 
us,  these  texts  of  ours  shall  receive  a  fulfilment  beyond 
that  realised  by  the  present  condition  of  things. 

"  Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  man,"  and 
in  a  renewed  and  redeemed  earth  "  they  shall  not  hurt 
nor  destroy  in  all  My  holy  mountain  "  ;  and  the  ancient 
story  will  be  repeated  in  higher  form.  The  servants 
shall  be  like  the  Lord  who,  when  He  had  conquered 
temptation,  was  with  the  wild  beasts  that  forgot  their 
enmity,  and  angels  ministered  unto  Him.  That  scene 
in  the  desert  may  serve  as  a  prophecy  of  the  future  when, 
under  conditions  of  which  we  know  nothing,  all  God's 
servants  shall,  even  more  markedly  and  manifestly  than 
here,  help  each  other  ;  and  every  man  that  loves  God 
will  find  a  friend  in  every  creature. 

If  we  take  Him  for  our  Commander,  and  enlist  our- 
selves in  that  embattled  host,  then  all  weathers  will 
be  good;  stormy  winds,  fulfilling  His  word,  will  blow 
UB  to  our  port ;  the  wUderness  will  rejoice  and  blossom 
as  the  rose  ;  and  the  whole  universe  will  be  radiant 
with  the  light  of  His  presence,  and  ringing  with  the 
music  of  His  voice. 

But  if  we  elect  to  join  the  other  army — for  there  is 
another  army,  and  men  have  wills  that  enable  them  to 
lift  themselves  up  against  God,  the  Ruler  of  all  things — 
then  the  old  story,  from  which  my  first  text  is  taken, 
will  fulfil  itself  again  in  regard  to  us — "the  stars  in 
their  courses  will  fight  against "  us  ;  and  Sisera,  lying 


"all  things  abb  yours."  136 

stiflF  and  stark,  with  Jael's  tent-peg  through  his  temples, 
and  the  swollen  corpses  being  swirled  down  to  the 
stormy  sea  by  "that  ancient  river,  the  river  Kishon," 
will  be  a  grim  parable  of  the  end  of  the  men  that  set 
themselves  against  God,  and  so  have  the  universe  against 
them.     "  Choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve." 


THE  EVIL  EYE  AND  THE  CHARM. 

"  Who  hath  bewitched  you,  that  ye  should  not  obey  the  truth,  before 
whose  eyes  Jesus  Christ  hath  been  evidently  set  forth,  crucified  among 
you?"— Gal.  iii.  1. 

THE  Revised  Version  gives  a  shorter,  and  probably 
correct,  form  of  this  vehement  question.  It  omits 
the  two  clauses  "  that  ye  should  not  obey  the  truth  "  and 
"among  you."  The  omission  increases  the  sharpness 
of  the  thrust  of  the  interrogation,  whilst  it  loses  nothing 
of  the  meaning. 

Now,  a  very  striking  metaphor  runs  through  the 
whole  of  this  question,  which  may  easily  be  lost  sight 
of  by  ordinary  readers.  You  know  the  old  superstition 
as  to  the  Evil  Eye,  almost  universal  at  the  date  of 
this  letter  and  even  now  in  the  East,  and  lingering 
still  amongst  ourselves.  Certain  persons  were  supposed 
to  have  the  power,  by  a  look,  to  work  mischief,  and  by 
fixing  the  gaze  of  their  victims,  to  suck  the  very  life  out 
of  them.  So  Paul  asks  who  the  malign  sorcerer  is  that 
has  thus  fascinated  the  fickle  Galatians,  and  is  draining 
their  Christian  life  out  of  their  eyes. 

Very  appropriately,  therefore,  if  there  is  this  refer- 
ence, which  the  word  translated  "  bewitched "  carries 
with  it,  he  goes  on  to  speak  about  Jesus  Christ  as  having 
been  displayed  before  their  eyes.     They  had  seen  Him. 

136 


THE  EVIL  BYE  AND  THE  CHARM.  137 

How  did  they  come  to  be  able  to  turn  away  to  look  at 
anything  else  ? 

But  there  is  another  observation  to  be  made  by  way 
of  introduction,  and  that  is  as  to  the  full  force  of  the 
expression  "evidently  set  forth."  The  word  employed, 
as  commentators  tell  us,  is  that  which  is  used  for  the 
display  of  official  proclamations,  or  public  notices,  in 
some  conspicuous  place,  as  the  Forum  or  the  market, 
that  the  citizens  might  read.  So,  keeping  up  the  meta- 
phor, the  word  might  be  rendered,  as  has  been  suggested 
by  some  eminent  scholars,  "  placarded  " — "  Before  whose 
eyes  Jesus  Christ  has  been  placarded."  The  expression 
has  acquired  somewhat  ignoble  associations  from  modern 
advertising,  but  that  is  no  reason  why  we  should  lose 
sight  of  its  force.  So,  then,  Paul  says,  "  In  my  preach- 
ing, Christ  was  conspicuously  set  forth.  It  is  like  some 
inexplicable  enchantment  that,  having  seen  Him,  you 
should  turn  away  to  gaze  on  others."  It  is  insanity 
which  evokes  wonder,  as  well  as  sin  which  deserves 
rebuke  ;  and  the  fiery  question  of  my  text  conveys  both. 

I.  Keeping  to  the  metaphor,  I  note  first  the  placard 
which  Paul  had  displayed. 

"Jesus  Christ  crucified  has  been  conspicuously  set 
forth  before  you,"  he  says  to  these  Galatians.  Now,  he 
is  referring,  of  course,  to  his  own  work  of  preaching 
the  Gospel  to  them  at  the  beginning.  And  the  vivid 
metaphor  suggests  very  strikingly  two  things.  We  see 
in  it  the  Apostle's  notion  of  what  He  had  to  do.  His 
had  been  a  very  humble  office,  simply  to  hang  up  a 
proclamation.  The  one  virtue  of  a  proclamation  is  that 
it  should  be  brief  and  plain.  It  must  be  authoritative, 
it  must  be  urgent,  it  must  be  "  writ  large,"  it  must  be 


138         THB  EVIL  EYE  AND  THE  OHARM. 

easily  intelligible.  And  he  that  makes  it  public  has 
nothing  to  do  except  to  fasten  it  up,  and  make  sure 
that  it  is  legible.  If  I  might  venture  into  modern 
phraseology,  what  Paul  means  is  that  he  was  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  bill-sticker,  that  he  went  out  with 
the  placards  and  fastened  them  up. 

Ah  1  if  we  ministers  universally  acted  up  to  the  implica- 
tions of  this  metaphor,  do  you  not  think  the  pulpit  would 
be  more  frequently  a  centre  of  power  than  it  is  to-day  ? 
And  if,  instead  of  presenting  our  own  ingenuities  and 
speculations,  we  were  to  realise  the  fact  that  we  have 
to  hide  ourselves  behind  the  broad  sheet  that  we  fasten 
up,  there  would  be  a  new  breath  over  many  a  moribund 
Church,  and  we  should  hear  less  of  the  often  warrantable 
sarcasms  about  the  inefficiency  of  the  modern  pulpit. 

But  I  turn  from  Paul's  conception  of  the  office  to  his 
statement  of  his  theme.  "  Jesus  was  displayed  amongst 
you."  If  I  might  vary  the  metaphor  a  little,  the  placard 
that  Paul  fastened  up  was  like  those  that  modern  adver- 
tising ingenuity  displays  upon  all  our  walls.  It  was  a 
picture-placard,  and  on  it  was  portrayed  one  sole  figure 
— Jesus,  the  Person.  Christianity  is  Christ,  and  Christ 
is  Christianity  ;  and  wherever  there  is  a  pulpit  or  a 
book  which  deals  rather  with  doctrines  than  with  Him 
who  is  the  Fountain  and  Quarry  of  all  doctrine,  there  is 
divergence  from  the  primitive  form  of  the  Gospel. 

I  know,  of  course,  that  doctrines — which  are  only 
formal  and  orderly  statements  of  principles  involved  in 
the  facts — must  flow  from  the  proclamation  of  the 
person,  Christ.  I  am  not  such  a  fool  as  to  run 
amuck  against  theology,  as  some  people  in  this  day 
do.     But  what  I  wish  to  insist  upon  is  that  the  first 


THE   BVIL   EYB   AND   THE    OHABM.  139 

form  of  Christianity  is  not  a  theory,  but  a  history,  and 
that  the  revelation  of  God  is  the  biography  of  a  man. 
We  must  begin  with  the  person,  Christ,  and  preach 
Him.  Would  that  all  our  preachers  and  all  professing 
Christians,  in  their  own  personal  religious  life,  had 
grasped  this — that,  since  Christianity  is  not  first  a  philo- 
sophy but  a  history,  and  its  centre  not  an  ordered 
sequence  of  doctrines  but  a  living  person,  the  act  that 
makes  a  man  possessor  of  Christianity  is  not  the  in- 
tellectual process  of  assimilating  certain  truths,  and 
accepting  them,  but  the  moral  process  of  clinging,  with 
trust  and  love,  to  the  person,  Jesus. 

But,  further,  if  any  of  you  consult  the  original,  yon 
will  see  that  the  order  of  the  sentence  is  such  as  to  throw 
a  great  weight  of  emphasis  on  that  last  word  "  crucified." 
It  is  not  merely  a  person  that  is  portrayed  on  the  placard, 
but  it  is  that  person  upon  the  Cross.  Ah  !  brethren, 
Paul  himself  puts  his  finger,  in  the  words  of  my  text,  on 
what,  in  his  conception,  was  the  throbbing  heart  of  all  his 
message,  the  vital  point  from  which  all  its  power,  and  all 
the  gleam  of  its  benediction,  poured  out  upon  human- 
ity— "  Christ  crucified."  If  the  placard  is  a  picture  of 
Christ  in  other  attitudes  and  in  other  aspects,  without 
the  picture  of  Him  crucified,  it  is  an  imperfect  repre- 
sentation of  the  Gospel  that  Paul  preached  and  that 
Christ  was. 

II.  Now,  think,  secondly,  of  the  fascinators  that  draw 
away  the  eyes. 

Paul's  question  is  not  one  of  ignorance,  but  it  is  a 
rhetorical  way  of  rebuking,  and  of  expressing  wonder. 
He  knew,  and  the  Galatians  knew,  well  enough  who  it 
was  that  had  bewitched  them.     The  whole  letter  is  a 


140         THE  EVIL  EYE  AND  THE  CHARM. 

polemic  worked  in  fire,  and  not  in  frost,  as  some  argu- 
mentation is,  against  a  very  well-marked  class  of 
teachers — viz.,  those  emissaries  of  Judaism  who  had 
crept  into  the  Church,  and  took  it  as  their  special 
function  to  dog  Paul's  steps  amongst  the  heathen  com- 
munities that  he  had  gathered  together  through  faith  in 
Christ,  and  used  every  means  to  upset  his  work. 

I  cannot  but  pause  for  a  moment  upon  this  original 
reference  of  my  text,  because  it  is  very  relevant  to  the 
present  condition  of  things  amongst  us.  These  men 
whom  Paul  is  fighting  as  if  he  were  in  a  sawpit  with 
them,  in  this  letter,  what  was  their  teaching  ?  This  : 
:hey  did  not  deny  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ  ;  they  did 
lot  deny  that  faith  knit  a  man  to  Him,  but  what  they  said 
was  that  the  observance  of  the  external  rites  of  Judaism 
vas  necessary  in  order  to  entrance  into  the  Church  and 
to  salvation.  They  did  not  in  their  own  estimation 
detract  from  Christ,  but  they  added  to  Him.  And  Paul 
says  that  to  add  is  to  detract,  to  say  that  anything  is 
necessary  except  faith  in  Jesus  Christ's  finished  work  is 
to  deny  that  that  finished  work,  and  faith  in  it,  are  the 
means  of  salvation;  and  the  whole  evangelical  system 
crumbles  into  nothingness  if  once  you  admit  that. 

Now,  is  there  anybody  to-day  that  is  saying  the  same 
things,  with  variations  consequent  upon  change  of  ex- 
ternal conditions  ?  Are  there  no  people  within  the  limits 
of  the  Christian  Church  that  are  reiterating  the  old 
Jewish  notion  that  external  ceremonies — baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper — are  necessary  to  salvation  and  to 
connection  with  the  Christian  Church  ?  And  is  it  not 
true  now,  as  it  was  then,  that  though  they  do  not 
avowedly  detract,  they  so  represent  these  external  rites 


THE  EVIL  EYE  AND  THE  CHARM.         141 

as  to  detract,  from  the  sole  necessity  of  faith  in  the  per- 
fected work  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  The  centre  is  shifted  from 
personal  union  with  a  personal  Saviour  by  a  personal 
faith  to  participation  in  external  ordinances.  And  I 
venture  to  think  that  the  lava  stream  which,  in  this 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians,'*^Paul  pours  on  the  Judaisers 
of  his  day  needs  but  a  little  deflection  to  pour  its  hot 
current  over,  and  to  consume,  the  sacramentarian  theo- 
ries of  this  day.  "0  foolish  Galatians,  who  hath  be- 
witched you  ?  "  Is  it  not  like  some  malignant  sorcery, 
that  after  the  Evangelical  revival  of  the  last  century  and 
the  earlier  part  of  this,  there  should  spring  up  again  this 
old,  old  error,  and  darken  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel 
teaching,  that  Christ's  work,  apprehended  by  faith,  with- 
out anything  else,  is  the  means,  and  the  only  means,  of 
salvation  ? 

But  I  need  not  spend  time  upon  that  original  appli- 
cation. Let  us  rather  come  more  closely  to  our  own 
individual  lives  and  their  weaknesses.  It  is  a  strange 
thing,  so  strange  that  if  one  did  not  know  it  bv  one's 
own  self,  one  would  be  scarcely  disposed  to  believe  it 
possible,  that  a  man  who  has  "tasted  the  good  word  of 
God  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,"  and  has  known 
Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour  and  Friend,  should  decline  from 
Him,  and  turn  to  anything  besides.  And  yet,  strange  and 
sad,  and  like  some  enchantment  as  it  is,  it  is  the  ex- 
perience at  times  and  in  a  measure,  of  us  all ;  and,  alas  I 
it  is  the  experience,  in  a  very  tragical  degree,  of  many 
who  have  walked  for  a  little  while  behind  the  Master, 
and  then  have  turned  away  and  walked  no  more  with 
Him.  We  may  well  wonder;  but  the  root  of  the 
mischief  is  in  no  baleful  glitter  of  a  sorcerer's  eye  with- 


142         THE  EVIL  EYE  AND  THE  OHABM. 

out  U8,  but  it  is  in  the  weakness  of  our  own  wills  and 
the  waywardness  of  our  own  hearts,  and  the  wandering 
of  our  own  affections.  We  often  court  the  coming  of  the 
evil  influence,  and  are  willing  to  be  fascinated  and  to 
turn  our  backs  upon  Jesus.  Mysterious  it  is,  for  why 
should  men  cast  away  diamonds  for  paste  ?  Mysterious 
it  is,  for  we  do  not  usually  drop  the  substance  to  get  the 
shadow.  Mysterious  it  is,  for  a  man  does  not  ordinarily 
empty  his  pockets  of  gold  in  order  to  fill  them  with 
gravel.  Mysterious  it  is,  for  a  thirsty  man  will  not 
usually  turn  away  from  the  full,  bubbling,  living  fountain, 
to  see  if  he  can  find  any  drops  still  remaining,  green  with 
scum,  stagnant  and  odorous,  at  the  bottom  of  some  broken 
cistern.  But  all  these  follies  are  sanity  as  compared 
with  the  folly  of  which  we  are  guilty,  times  without 
number,  when,  having  known  the  sweetness  of  Jesus 
Christ,  we  turn  away  to  the  fascinations  of  the  world. 
Custom,  the  familiarity  that  we  have  with  Him,  the 
attrition  of  daily  cares — like  the  minute  grains  of  sand 
that  are  cemented  on  to  paper,  and  make  a  piece  of  sand- 
paper that  is  strong  enough  to  file  an  inscription  off  iron 
— the  seductions  of  worldly  delights,  the  pressure  of  our 
daily  cares — all  these  are  as  a  ring  of  sorcerers  that  stand 
round  about  us,  before  whom  we  are  as  powerless  as  a 
bird  in  the  presence  of  a  serpent,  and  they  bewitch  us 
and  draw  us  away. 

The  sad  fact  has  been  verified  over  and  over  again  on 
a  large  scale  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  After  every 
outburst  of  renewed  life  and  elevated  spirituality  there  is 
sure  to  come  a  period  of  reaction  when  torpor  and  form- 
ality again  assert  themselves.  What  followed  the  Re- 
formation in  Germany  ?     A  century  of  death.     What 


THE   EVIL   BYE   AND   THE    CHARM.  143 

followed  Paritanism  in  England  ?  An  outburst  of  lust 
and  godlessness. 

So  it  has  always  been,  and  so  it  is  with  us  individually, 
as  we  too  well  know.  Ah !  brethren,  the  seductions  are 
omnipresent,  and  our  poor  eyes  are  very  weak,  and  we 
turn  away  frona  the  Lord  to  look  on  these  misshapen 
monsters  that  are  seeking  by  their  gaze  to  draw  us  into 
destruction.  I  wonder  how  many  professing  Christians 
are  in  this  audience  who  once  saw  Jesus  Christ  a 
great  deal  more  clearly,  and  contemplated  Him  a  great 
deal  more  fixedly,  and  turned  their  hearts  to  Him  far 
more  lovingly,  than  they  do  to-day  ?  Some  of  the  great 
mountain  peaks  of  Africa  are  only  seen  for  an  hour  or 
two  in  the  morning,  and  then  the  clouds  gather  around 
them,  and  hide  them  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  It  is  like 
the  experience  of  many  professing  Christians,  who  see 
Him  in  the  morning  of  their  Christian  life  far  more 
vividly  than  they  ever  do  after.  "  Who  hath  bewitched 
you  ? "  The  world  ;  but  the  arch-sorcerer  sits  safe  in 
our  own  hearts. 

III.  Lastly,  keeping  to  the  metaphor,  let  me  suggest, 
although  my  text  does  not  touch  upon  it,  the  Amulet. 

One  has  seen  fond  mothers  in  Egypt  and  Palestine 
who  hang  on  their  babies'  necks  charms,  to  shield  them 
from  the  influence  of  the  Evil  Eye  ;  and  there  is  a 
charm  that  we  may  wear  if  we  will,  which  will  keep 
us  safe.  There  is  no  fascination  in  the  Evil  Eye  if  you 
do  not  look  at  it. 

The  one  object  that  the  sorcerer  has  is  to  withdraw 
our  gaze  from  Christ ;  it  is  not  illogical  to  say  that 
the  way  to  defeat  the  object  is  to  keep  our  gaze  fixed 
on  Christ.     If  you  do  not  look  at  the  baleful  gKtter 


144  THE    EVIL    EYE    AND    THE    CHABM. 

of  the  Evil  Eye  it  will  exercise  no  power  over  yon; 
and  if  you  will  steadfastly  look  at  Him,  then,  and  only 
then,  you  will  not  look  at  it.  Like  Ulysses  in  the 
legend,  bandage  the  eyes  and  put  wax  in  the  ears,  if  you 
would  neither  be  tempted  by  hearing  the  songs,  nor 
by  seeing  the  fair  forms,  of  the  sirens  on  their  island. 
To  look  fixedly  at  Jesus  Christ,  and  with  the  resolve 
never  to  turn  away  from  Him,  is  the  only  safety  against 
these  tempting  delights  around  us. 

But,  brethren,  it  is  the  crucified  Christ,  looking  to 
whom  we  are  safe  amidst  all  seductions  and  snares. 
I  doubt  whether  a  Christ  who  did  not  die  for  men  has 
power  enough  over  men's  hearts  and  minds  to  draw 
them  to  Himself.  The  cords  which  bind  us  to  Him 
are  the  assurance  of  His  dying  love  which  has  conquered 
us.  If  only  we  will,  day  by  day,  and  moment  by 
moment,  as  we  pass  through  the  duties  and  distractions, 
the  temptations  and  the  trials,  of  this  present  life,  by 
an  act  of  will  and  thought  turn  ourselves  to  Him,  then 
all  the  glamour  of  false  attractiveness  will  disappear 
from  the  temptations  around  us,  and  we  shall  see  that 
the  sirens,  for  all  their  fair  forms,  end  in  loathly  fishes' 
tails  and  sit  amidst  dead  men's  bones. 

Brethren,  "  looking  off  unto  Jesus "  is  the  secret 
of  triumph  over  the  fascinations  of  the  world.  And  if 
we  will  habitually  so  look,  then  the  sweetness  that 
we  shall  experience  will  destroy  all  the  seducing  power 
of  lesser  and  earthly  sweetness,  and  the  blessed  light 
of  the  sun  will  dim  and  all  but  extinguish  the  deceit- 
ful gleams,  that  tempt  us  into  the  swamps  where 
we  shall  be  drowned.  Turn  away,  then,  from  these 
things  ;  cleave  to  Jesus  Christ ;  and  though  in  ourselves 


THE  EVIL  BYE  AND  THE  CHARM.         145 

we  may  be  as  weak  as  a  humming-bird  before  a  snake, 
or  a  rabbit  before  a  tiger,  He  will  give  us  strength, 
and  the  light  of  His  face  shining  down  upon  us  will 
fix  our  eyes  and  make  us  insensible  to  the  fascinations 
of  the  sorcerers.  So  we  shall  not  need  to  dread  the 
question,  "  Who  hath  bewitched  you  ? "  but  ourselves 
challenge  the  utmost  might  of  the  fascinators  with 
the  triumphant  question,  "  Who  shall  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  Christ  ?  " 

Help  us,  0  Lord  I  we  beseech  Thee,  to  live  near 
Thee.  Turn  away  our  eyes  from  beholding  vanity, 
and  enable  us  to  set  the  Lord  always  before  us  that 
we  be  not  moved. 


PUTTING    ON    THE    ARMOUR* 

"And  the  king  of  Israel  answered  and  said,  •  Tell  him,  Let  not  him 
that  girdeth  on  his  harness  boast  himseK  as  he  that  putteth  it  off.'" — 
I  Kings  xx.  il, 

A  HAB,  King  of  Israel,  was  but  a  poor  creature,  and, 
J\.  like  most  weak  characters,  he  turned  out  a  wicked 
one,  because  he  found  that  there  were  more  temptations 
to  do  wrong  than  inducements  to  do  right.  Like  other 
weak  people,  too,  he  was  torn  asunder  by  the  inliuence 
of  stronger  wills.  On  the  one  side  he  had  a  termagant 
of  a  wife,  stirring  him  up  to  idolatry  and  all  evil,  and 
on  the  other  side  Elijah  thundering  and  lightning  at 
him  ;  so  the  poor  man  was  often  reduced  to  perplexity. 
Once  in  his  lifetime  he  did  behave  like  a  king,  with 
some  flash  of  dignity.  My  text  comes  from  that  incident. 
His  next  neighbour,  and,  consequently,  his  continual 
enemy,  was  the  King  of  Damascus.  He  had  made  a 
raid  across  the  border  and  was  dictating  terms  so  severe 
as  to  invite  even  Ahab  to  courageous  opposition.  His 
back  was  at  the  wall,  and  he  mustered  up  courage  to 
say  "  No ! "  That  provoked  a  bit  of  blustering  bravado 
from  the  enemy,  who  sent  back  a  message,  "  The  gods  do 
so  unto  me,  and  more  also,  if  the  dust  of  Samaria  shall 
suffice  for  handfuls  for  all  the  people  that  follow  me." 
And  then  Ahab  replied  in  the  words  of  our  text.    They 

*  Annual  Sermon  to  the  Toong. 
148 


PUTTING  ON  THB  ARMOUB.  147 

have  a  dash  of  contempt  and  sarcasm,  all  the  more 
galling  because  of  their  unanswerable  common-sense. 
"  The  time  to  crow  and  clap  your  wings  is  after  you 
have  fought.  Samaria  is  not  a  heap  of  dust  just  yet. 
Threatened  men  live  long."  The  battle  began,  and  the 
bully  was  beaten  ;  and  for  once  Ahab  tasted  the  sweets 
of  success. 

Now,  I  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  Ahab  and 
the  immediate  application  of  his  message,  but  I  wish 
to  apply  it  to  my  young  friends,  whom  I  have  taken 
it  upon  me  to  ask  to  come  and  hear  me  say  two  or 
three  homely  words  to  them  in  this  sermon. 

You  are  beginning  the  fight ;  some  of  us  old  people 
are  getting  very  near  the  end  of  it.  And  1  would  fain, 
if  I  could,  see  successors  coming  to  take  the  places 
which  we  shall  soon  have  to  vacate.  So  my  message 
to  you,  dear  friends,  young  men  and  young  women, 
is  this,  "  Let  not  him  that  putteth  on  the  harness  boast 
himself  as  he  that  putteth  it  off." 

I.  Now,  look  for  a  moment  at  the  general  view  of  life 
that  is  implied  in  this  saying  thus  understood. 

There  is  nothing  that  the  bulk  of  people  are  more 
unwilling  to  do  than  steadily  to  think  about  what  life 
as  a  whole  and  in  its  deepest  aspects,  is.  And  that 
disinclination  is  strong,  as  I  suppose,  in  the  average 
young  man  or  young  woman.  That  comes,  plainly 
enough,  from  the  very  blessings  of  your  stage  of  life. 
Unworn  health,  a  blessed  inexperience  of  failures 
and  limitations,  the  sense  of  undeveloped  power  within 
you,  the  natural  buoyancy  of  early  days,  all  tend  to 
make  you  rather  la'#^  by  impulse  than  by  reflection. 
And  I  '3b.ould  be  ch"    last  man  in  the  world  to   try  to 


148  PUTTING    ON    THE    ARMOUR. 

damp  the  noble,  buoyant,  beautiful  enthasiasms  with 
which  Nature  has  provided  that  we  should  all  begin 
our  course.  The  world  will  do  that  soon  enough  ;  and 
there  is  no  sadder  sight  than  that  of  a  bitter  old  man, 
who  has  outlived,  and  smiles  sardonically  at,  his  youthful 
dreams.  But  I  do  wish  to  press  upon  you  all  this 
question,  Have  you  ever  tried  to  think  to  yourself,  "  Now, 
what,  after  all,  is  this  life  that  is  budding  within  me 
and  dawning  before  me — what  is  it,  in  its  deepest 
character,  and  what  am  I  to  do  with  it  ?  " 

There  are  some  of  us  to  whom,  so  far  as  we  have 
thought  at  all,  life  presents  itself  mainly  as  a  shop,  a 
place  where  we  are  to  buy  and  sell,  and  get  gain,  and 
use  our  evenings,  after  the  day's  work  is  over,  for 
such  recreation  as  suits  us.  And  there  are  young  men 
among  my  hearers  who,  with  the  flush  of  their  physical 
manhood  upon  them,  and  perhaps  away  from  the 
restraints  of  home,  and  living  in  gloomy  town  lodgings, 
with  nobody  to  look  after  them,  are  beginning  to  think 
that  life  after  all  is  a  kind  of  pigs'  trough,  with  plenty 
of  foul  wash  in  it  for  whoso  chooses  to  suck  it  up — a 
garden  of  not  altogether  pure  delights,  a  place  where  a 
man  may  gratify  the  lusts  of  the  flesh. 

But,  dear  brethren,  whilst  there  are  many  other  noble 
metaphors  under  which  we  can  set  forth  the  essential 
character  of  this  mysterious,  tremendous  life  of  ours,  I 
do  not  know  that  there  is  one  that  ought  to  appeal  more 
to  the  slumbering  heroism,  which  lies  in  every  human  soul, 
and  to  the  enthusiasms  which,  unless  you  in  your  youth 
cherish,  you  will  be  beggared  indeed  in  your  manhood, 
than  that  which  this  picture  of  my  text  suggests.  After 
all,  life  is  meant  to  be  one  long  conflict.     We  are  like 


PUTTING   ON   THB    ABMOTJB.  149 

the  fellahin  that  one  sometimes  sees  in  Eastern  lands, 
who  cannot  go  out  to  plough  in  their  fields,  or  reap 
their  harvests,  without  a  gun  slung  on  their  backs  ;  for 
the  condition  under  which  we  work  in  this  world  is  that 
everything  worth  doing  has  to  be  done  at  the  cost  of 
opposition  and  antagonism,  and  that  no  noble  service 
or  building  is  possible  without  brave,  continuous  conflict. 
Even  upon  the  lower  levels  of  life  that  is  so.  No  man 
learns  a  science  or  a  trade  without  having  to  fight  for 
it.  But  high  above  these  lower  levels,  there  is  the  one 
on  which  we  all  are  called  to  walk,  the  high  level  of 
duty,  and  no  man  does  what  his  conscience  tells  him, 
or  refrains  from  that  which  his  conscience  sternly  forbids, 
without  having  to  fight  for  it.  We  are  in  the  lists  and 
compelled  to  draw  the  sword.  And  if  we  do  not  realise 
this,  that  all  nobility,  all  greatness,  all  wisdom,  all 
success,  even  of  the  lowest  and  most  vulpine  kind,  are 
won  by  conflict,  we  shall  never  do  anything  in  the 
world  worth  doing.  You  are  a  soldier,  whether  you 
will  or  not,  and  life  is  a  fight,  whether  you  understand 
the  conditions  or  no. 

So,  standing  at  the  beginning,  do  not  fancy  that  there 
is  opening  before  you  a  scene  of  enjoyment,  or  that 
you  are  stepping  into  a  world  in  which  you  can  take 
your  ease,  and  come  out  successfully  at  the  other  end. 
It  is  not  so  ;  and  you  will  find  that  out  before  long. 
Better  that  you  should  settle  it  in  your  minds  at  the 
beginning.  When  I  was  born  I  was  enrolled  on  the 
roll-call  of  the  regiment ;  and  now  I  have  to  do  a  man's 
part  in  the  battle. 

II.  Note  the  boastful  temper  which  is  sure  to  be 
beaten. 


150  PUTTING   ON   THE   ARMOUB. 

No  donbt  there  is  something  inspiring  in  the  spectacle 
of  the  yonng  warrior  standing  there,  chafing  at  the 
lists,  eagerly  pulling  on  his  gauntlets,  fitting  on  his 
helmet,  and  longing  to  be  in  the  thick  of  the  fight. 
No  doubt,  as  I  have  already  said,  there  is  something 
in  your  early  days  which  makes  such  buoyant  hopes 
and  anticipations  of  success  natural,  and  which  gives 
yon,  as  a  great  gift,  that  expectation  of  victory.  I  do 
not  wish  to  shatter  any  of  your  enthusiasms  or  ideals, 
but  I  do  wish  to  suggest  a  consideration  or  two  that  may 
calm  and  sober  them. 

So  I  ask,  have  you  ever  estimated,  are  you  now 
estimating  rightly,  what  it  is  that  you  have  to  fight 
for?  To  make  yourselves  pure,  wise,  strong,  self- 
governing,  Christ-like  men,  such  as  God  would  have 
you  to  be.  That  is  not  a  small  thing  for  a  man  to 
set  himself  to  do.  You  may  go  into  the  struggle  for 
lower  purposes,  for  bread  and  cheese,  or  wealth,  or  fame, 
or  love,  or  the  like,  with  a  comparatively  light  heart ; 
but  if  there  once  has  dawned  upon  a  young  soul  the 
whole  majestic  sweep  of  possibilities  in  each  human 
life,  then  the  battle  assumes  an  aspect  of  solemnity 
and  greatness  that  silences  all  boasting.  Have  you  con- 
sidered what  it  is  that  you  have  to  fight  for  ? 

Have  you  considered  the  forces  that  are  arrayed 
against  you  ?  "  What  act  is  all  its  thought  had  been  ?  " 
Hand  and  brain  are  never  paired.  There  is  always  a  gap 
between  the  conception  and  its  realisation.  The  painter 
stands  before  his  canvas,  and,  while  others  may  see 
l)eauty  in  it,  he  only  sees  what  a  small  fragment  of 
the  radiant  vision  that  floated  before  his  eye  his  hand 
has  been   able   to   preserve.     The  author  looks  on   his 


PUTTING   ON   THE    ABMOUB.  151 

book  and  thinks  what  a  poor,  wretched  transcript  of 
the  thoughts  that  inspired  his  pen  it  is.  There  is  ever 
this  same  disproportion  between  the  conception  and 
accomplishment.  Therefore,  all  we  old  people  feel, 
more  or  less,  that  onr  lives  have  been  failures.  We 
set  out  as  you  do,  thinking  that  we  were  going  to  build 
a  tower  whose  top  should  reach  to  heaven,  and  we 
are  contented  if,  at  the  last,  we  have  scrambled  together 
some  little  wooden  shanty  in  which  we  can  live.  We 
thought  as  you  do  ;  you  will  come  to  think  as  we  do. 
So  you  had  better  begin  now,  and  not  go  into  the  fight 
boasting,  or  you  will  come  out  of  it  conscious  of  being 
beaten. 

Have  you  realised  how  different  it  is  to  dream 
things  and  to  do  them  ?  In  our  dreams  we  are,  as 
it  were,  working  in  vacuo.  When  we  come  to  acts, 
the  atmosphere  offers  resistance.  It  is  easy  to  imagine 
ourselves  victorious  in  circumstances  where  things  are 
all  going  rightly  and  are  blending  according  to  our 
own  desires,  but  when  we  come  to  the  grim  world, 
where  there  are  things  that  resist  and  people  are  not 
plastic,  it  is  a  very  different  matter.  You  do  not  yet 
understand,  as  you  will  some  day,  the  fatal  limitations 
of  power  that  hem  us  all  in,  and  the  obstinate  way  that 
circumstances  have  of  not  falling  in  with  our  wishes. 
And  you  have  not  yet  learned  how  completely  and 
constantly  failure  accompanies  success,  like  its  shadow. 
The  old  Egyptians  had  no  need  to  put  a  skeleton  at  the 
tables,  nor  the  Romans  to  set  a  mocker  behind  the  hero  as 
he  rode  in  triumph  up  to  the  Capitol.  The  world  provides 
the  skeleton  at  the  banquet,  and  circumstances  supply 
the  mocker  to  add  a  dash  of  failure  to  all  our  triumphs. 


152  PUTTING    ON   THE    ARMOUB. 

Have  yon  ever  realised  how  certainly,  into  the 
brightest  and  most  buoyant  and  successful  lives,  there 
will  come  crushing  sorrows,  blows  as  from  an  unseen 
hand  in  the  dark,  that  fell  a  man  ?  0  friend  1  when 
one  thinks  of  the  miseries  and  the  misfortunes,  the 
sorrows  and  the  losses,  the  broken  and  bleeding  hearts 
that  began  life  buoyant,  elastic,  hopeful,  perhaps  boasting, 
like  you,  there  onght  to  be  a  sobering  tint  cast  over  our 
brightest  visions. 

I  suppose  that  our  colleges  are  full  of  students  who 
are  going  to  far  outstrip  their  professors,  that  every  life- 
school  has  a  dozen  lads,  who  have  just  begun  to  handle 
easel  and  bmsh,  that  are  going  to  put  Raffaelle  in  the 
shade.  I  suppose  that  every  lawyer's  office  has  a 
budding  Lord  Chancellor  or  two  in  it.  And  I  suppose 
that  that  sharp  criticism  of  ns  fumblers  in  the  field,  and 
half-expressed  thought,  "  How  mnch  better  I  could  do 
it,"  belong  to  yonth  by  virtue  of  its  youth.  It  is  a 
crude  form  of  undeveloped  power,  but  it  wants  a  great 
deal  of  sobering  down,  and  I  am  trying  now  to  let  out 
a  little  of  the  blood,  and  to  bring  you  to  a  clear  con- 
ception of  the  very  limited  success  which  is  likely  to 
attend  you.  All  of  ns  old  people,  whose  deficiencies  and 
limitations  you  see  so  clearly,  had  the  same  dreams, 
impossible  as  it  may  appear  to  you,  fifty  years  ago.  We 
were  going  to  be  the  men,  and  wisdom  was  going  to  die 
with  us,  and  yon  see  what  we  have  made  of  it.  You 
will  not  do  much  better. 

Have  you  ever  taken  stock  honestly  of  your  own 
resources  ?  "  What  king,  going  to  make  war  against 
another  king,  sitteth  not  down  first,  and  counteth  the 
cost,  whether  with  his  ten  thousand  he  can  meat  him 


PUTTING    ON    THE   ARMOUB.  153 

that  cometli  against  him  with  twenty  thousand  ? " 
Boast  if  you  like,  but  calculate  first,  and  boast  after  that, 
if  you  can. 

Your  worst  enemy  is  yourself.  When  you  are 
counting  your  resources  and  saying,  "  I  have  this,  that, 
and  the  other  thing,"  do  not  forget  to  say,  "I  have  a 
part  of  me,  that  it  takes  all  the  rest  of  me  all  its  time  to 
keep  down  and  prevent  from  becoming  master."  You 
have  traitors  in  the  fortress  who  are  in  communication 
with  the  enemy  outside,  and  may  go  over  to  him  openly 
in  the  very  crisis  of  the  fight.  You  have  to  take  that 
fact  into  account,  and  it  ought  to  suppress  boasting 
whilst  you  are  putting  on  the  harness. 

You  are  not  old  enough  to  remember,  as  some  of  us 
do,  the  delirious  enthusiasm  with  which,  in  the  last 
Franco-German  war,  the  emperor  and  the  troops  left 
Paris,  and  how,  as  the  train  steamed  out  of  the  station, 
shouts  were  raised,  "  A  Berlin  I "  Ay  1  and  they  never 
got  farther  than  Sedan,  and  there  an  emperor  and  an 
army  were  captured.  Go  into  the  fight  bragging,  and 
you  will  come  out  of  it  beaten. 

III.  Note  the  Confidence  which  is  not  boasting. 

I  can  fancy  some  of  you  saying  :  "  These  gloomy 
views  of  yours  will  lead  to  nothing  but  absolute  despair. 
You  have  been  telling  us  that  success  is  impossible  ; 
that  we  are  bound  to  fight,  and  are  sure  to  be  beaten. 
What  are  we  to  do  ?  Throw  up  the  sponge,  and  say, 
*  Very  well  I  then  I  may  as  well  have  my  fling,  and 
give  up  all  attempts  to  be  any  better  than  my  passions 
and  my  senses  would  lead  me  to  be.' "  And  if  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  said  about  the  fight  than  has  been 
already  said,  that  is  the  conclusion.     "Let  us  eat  and 


154  PUTTlNa    ON    THE    ARMOUR. 

drink,"  not  only  for  to-morrow  we  die,  but  "  for  to-day 
we  are  sure  to  be  beaten."  But  I  have  only  been 
speaking  about  this  self-distrust  as  preliminary  to  what 
is  the  main  thing  that  I  desire  to  urge  upon  you  now, 
and  it  is  this  :  You  do  not  need  to  be  beaten.  There  is 
no  room  for  boasting,  but  there  is  room  for  absolute 
confidence.  You,  young  men  and  women,  standing  at 
the  entrance  of  the  amphitheatre  where  the  gladiators 
fight,  may  dash  into  the  arena  with  the  most  perfect 
confidence  that  you  will  come  out  with  your  shield 
preserved  and  your  sword  unbroken. 

There  is  one  way  of  doing  it.  "  Be  of  good  cheer  ;  I 
have  overcome  the  world."  That  was  not  the  boast  of  a 
man  putting  on  the  harness,  but  the  calm  utterance  of 
the  conquering  Christ  when  He  was  putting  it  off.  He 
has  conquered  that  you  may  conquer.  Remember  how 
the  Apostle,  who  has  preserved  for  us  that  note  of 
triumph  at  the  end  of  Christ's  life,  has,  like  some 
musician  with  a  favourite  phrase,  modulated  and  varied 
it  in  his  letter  written  long  after,  when  he  says,  "  This  is 
the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith." 
My  dear  young  friends,  distrust  yourselves  utterly,  and 
trust  Jesus  Christ  absolutely,  and  give  yourself  to  Him, 
to  be  His  servant  and  soldier  till  your  life's  end.  Then 
you  will  not  be  beaten,  for  it  is  written  of  those  who 
move  in  the  light,  wearing  the  victor's  palm  :  "  These 
are  they  who  overcame  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and 
by  the  word  of  His  testimony."  That  blood  secures  our 
victory  in  a  threefold  fashion.  By  that  great  death  of 
Jesus  Christ  all  our  past  sins  may  be  forgiven,  and  they 
no  longer  have  power  to  tyrannise  over  us.  In  His 
sacrifice  for  us  there  are  motives  given  to  us  for  noble, 


PUTTING   ON    THE   ARMOUR.  155 

grateful,  God-like  living,  stronger  than  all  the  tempta- 
tions that  can  arise  from  our  own  hearts,  or  from  the 
evils  around  us.  And  if  we  put  our  humble  trust  in 
Him,  then  that  faith  opens  the  door  for  the  entrance  into 
our  hearts,  in  simple  reality,  of  a  share  in  His  conquering 
life  which  will  make  us  victorious  over  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil. 

"This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world," 
and  the  youngest,  feeblest  Christian  who  lays  his  or 
her  hand  in  Christ's  strong  hand,  may  look  out  upon 
all  the  embattled  antagonisms  that  front  them,  and 
say,  "  He  will  cover  my  head  in  the  day  of  battle,  and 
teach  my  hands  to  war  and  my  fingers  to  fight." 

Dear  young  friends,  people  sometimes  preach  to  you 
that  you  should  be  Christians,  because  life  is  uncertain 
and  death  is  drawing  near,  and  after  death  the  Judgment. 
I  preach  that,  too  ;  but  the  Gospel  that  I  seek  to  press 
upon  you  now  is  not  merely  a  thing  to  die  by,  but  it  is 
the  thing  to  live  by  ;  and  it  is  the  only  power  by  which 
we  shall  be  sure  of  overcoming  the  armies  of  the  aliens. 
This  confidence  in  Christ  will  take  away  from  you  no 
shred  of  your  natural,  youthful,  buoyant  elasticity,  but 
it  will  save  you  from  much  transgression  and  from 
bitter  regrets. 

One  last  word.  There  is  possible  a  triumph  which 
is  not  boasting,  for  him  who  puts  of  the  harness.  The 
war-worn  soldier  has  little  heart  for  boasting,  but  he 
may  be  able  to  say,  "  I  have  not  been  beaten."  The 
best  of  us,  when  we  come  to  the  end,  will  have  to 
recognise  in  retrospect  failures,  deficiencies,  palterings 
with  evil,  yieldings  to  temptation,  sins  of  many  sorts, 
that   will  put  all   boasting  out  of  our  thoughts.     But, 


156  PUTTING    ON   THK    ABMOU». 

whilst  that  if  lo,  there  is  sometimes  granted  to  the 
man,  who  has  been  faithfal  in  his  adherence  to  Jesns 
Christ,  a  gleam  of  sunshine  at  eventime,  which  foretells 
Heaven's  welcome  and  "  well  done  "  before  it  is  uttered. 
He  was  no  self-righteous  braggart,  but  a  very  rigid 
judge  of  himself,  who,  close  by  the  headsman's  block 
that  ended  his  life,  said :  "  I  have  fought  a  good  fight ; 
I  have  finished  my  course  ;  I  have  kept  the  faith."  Put 
on  the  whole  armour  of  God,  and  when  the  time  comes 
to  put  it  off  you  will  have  a  peaceful  assurance,  as  far 
removed  from  despair  as  it  is  from  boasting.  Distrust 
yourselves ;  do  not  underestimate  your  enemies  ;  under- 
stand that  life  is  warfare  ;  trust  utterly  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  He  will  see  to  it  that  you  are  not  conquered,  will 
give  you  the  calm  confidence  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking  here,  and  a  share  hereafter  in  the  throne  which 
He  promises  to  him  that  overcometh.  If  you  will  trust 
yourselves  to  Him,  and  take  service  in  His  army,  you 
cannot  be  too  certain  of  victory.  If  you  fling  yourself 
into  the  fight  in  your  own  strength,  with  however  high 
a  hope,  and  fight  without  the  Captain  for  your  ally,  you 
cannot  escape  defeat. 


DYING  MEN  AND  THE  UNDYING  WORD. 

"  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  7  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for 
ever  ?  But  My  words  and  My  statutes,  which  I  commanded  My  servants 
the  prophets,  did  they  not  take  hold  of  your  fathers  ?" — Zech.  i.  6,  6. 

ZECHARIAH  was  the  prophet  of  the  Restoration. 
Some  sixteen  years  before  his  date  a  feeble  band 
of  exiles  had  returned  from  Babylon,  with  high  hopes 
of  rebuilding  the  ruined  temple.  But  their  designs  had 
been  thwarted,  and  for  long  years  the  foundations  stood 
unbuilded  upon.  The  delay  had  shattered  their  hopes 
and  flattened  their  enthusiasm  ;  and  when,  with  the 
advent  of  a  new  Persian  king,  a  brighter  day  dawned, 
the  little  band  was  almost  too  dispirited  to  avail  itself 
of  it.  At  that  crisis,  two  prophets  "  blew  soul-animating 
strains,"  and,  as  the  narrative  says  elsewhere,  "  the 
work  prospered  through  the  prophesying  of  Haggai  and 
Zechariah." 

My  text  comes  from  the  first  of  Zechariah's  prophecies. 
In  it  he  lays  the  foundation  for  all  that  he  has  sub- 
sequently to  say.  He  points  to  the  past,  and  summons 
up  the  august  figures  of  the  great  pre-Bxilic  prophets, 
and  reminds  his  contemporaries  that  the  words  which 
they  spoke  had  been  verified  in  the  experience  of  past 
generations.     He  puts  himself  in  line  with  these,  his 

157 


158      DYINO  MEN  AND  THE  UNDYING  WORD. 

mighty  predecessors,  and  declares  that,  though  the 
bearers  and  the  speakers  of  that  prophetic  word  had 
glided  away  into  the  vast  unknown,  the  word  remained, 
lived  still,  and  on  his  lips  demanded  the  same  obedience 
as  it  had  vainly  demanded  from  the  generation  that  was 
past. 

It  has  sometimes  been  supposed  that  of  the  two 
questions  in  my  text  the  first  is  the  prophet's — "  Your 
fathers,  where  are  they  ?  "  and  that  the  second  is  the 
retort  of  the  people — "The  prophets,  do  they  live  for 
ever  ?  '*  "  It  is  true  that  our  fathers  are  gone,  but 
what  about  the  prophets  that  you  are  talking  of?  Are 
they  any  better  off  ?  Are  they  not  dead,  too  ?  '*  But 
though  the  separation  of  the  words  into  dialogue  gives 
vivacity,  it  is  wholly  unnecessary.  And  it  seems  to 
me  that  Zechariah's  appeal  is  all  the  more  impressive 
if  we  suppose  that  he  here  gathers  the  mortal  hearers 
and  speakers  of  the  immortal  word  into  one  class,  and 
sets  over  against  them  the  eternal  word,  which  lives 
to-day  as  it  did  then,  and  has  new  lessons  for  a  new 
generation.  So  it  is  from  that  point  of  view  that  I 
wish  to  look  at  these  words  now,  and  try  to  gather 
from  them  some  of  the  solemn  and,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
striking  lessons  which  they  inculcate.  I  follow  with 
absolute  simplicity  the  prophet's  thoughts. 

I.  The  mortal  hearers  and  speakers  of  the  abiding 
Word. 

"  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?  And  the  prophets,  do 
they  live  for  ever  ?  "  It  is  all  but  impossible  to  invest 
that  well-known  thought  with  any  fresh  force ;  but, 
perhaps,  if  we  look  at  it  from  the  special  angle  from 
which  the  prophet  here  regards  it,  we  may  get  some 


DYING  MEN  AND  THE  UNDYING  WORD.      159 

new  impression  of  the  old  truth.  That  special  angle 
is  to  bring  into  connection  the  Eternal  Word  and  the 
transient  vehicles  and  hearers  of  it. 

Did  you  ever  stand  in  some  roofless,  ruined,  cathedral 
or  abbey-church,  and  try  to  gather  round  you  the 
generations  that  had  bowed  and  worshipped  there  ? 
Did  you  ever  step  across  the  threshold  of  some  ancient 
sanctuary,  where  the  feet  of  vanished  generations  had 
worn  down  the  sand-stone  steps  at  the  entrance  ?  It 
is  solemn  to  think  of  the  fleeting  series  of  men  ;  it  is 
still  more  striking  to  bring  them  into  connection  with 
that  everlasting  Word  which  once  they  heard,  and 
accepted  or  rejected. 

But  let  me  bring  the  thought  a  little  closer.  There 
is  not  a  sitting  in  our  churches  that  has  not  been  sat 
in  by  dead  people.  As  I  stand  here  and  look  round 
I  can  re-people  almost  every  pew  with  faces  that  we 
shall  see  no  more.  Many  of  yon,  the  older  habitues 
of  this  place,  can  do  the  same,  and  can  look  and  think, 
"  Ah  1  he  used  to  sit  there  ;  she  used  to  be  in  that 
corner."  And  I  can  remember  many  mouldering  lips 
that  have  stood  in  this  place  where  I  stand,  of  friends 
and  brethren  that  are  gone.  "  Your  fathers,  where 
are  they  ?  "  "  Graves  under  us,  silent,"  are  the  only 
answer.  "  And  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for  ever  ? " 
No  memories  are  shorter-lived  than  the  memories  of  the 
preachers  of  God's  word. 

Take  another  thought,  that  all  these  past  hearers  and 
speakers  of  the  word  had  that  word  verified  in  their 
lives.  "  Took  it  not  hold  of  your  fathers  ?  "  Some  of 
them  neglected  it,  and  its  burdens  were  upon  them,  little 
as  they  felt  them  sometimes.     Some  of  them  clave  to  it, 


180  DYING   MEN    AND   THE   UNDYING    WORD. 

and  accepted  it,  and  its  blessed  promises  weie  all  ful- 
filled to  them.  Not  one  of  them  who,  for  the  brief 
period  of  their  earthly  lives,  came  in  contact  with  that 
Divine  message,  but  realised,  more  or  less  consciously, 
some  blessedly  and  some  in  darkened  lives  and  ruined 
careers,  the  solemn  trutu  of  its  promises  and  of  its 
threatenings.  The  word  may  have  been  received,  or  it 
may  have  been  neglected,  by  the  past  generations  ;  but 
whether  the  members  thereof  put  out  a  hand  to  accept 
or  withheld  their  grasp,  whether  they  took  hold  of  it 
or  it  took  hold  of  them —wherever  they  are  now,  their 
earthly  relation  to  that  word  is  a  determining  factor  in 
their  condition.  The  syllables  died  away  into  empty  air, 
the  messages  were  forgotten,  but  the  men  that  ministered 
them  are  eternally  influenced  by  the  faithfulness-  of 
their  ministrations,  and  the  men  that  heard  them  are 
eternally  affected  by  the  reception  or  rejection  of  that 
word.  So,  when  we  summon  around  us  the  con- 
gregation of  the  dead,  which  is  more  numerous  than 
the  audience  of  the  living  to  whom  I  now  speak, 
the  lesson  that  their  silent  presence  teaches  us  is, 
"wherefore  we  should  give  the  more  earnest  heed  to 
the  things  that  we  have  heard." 

II.  Let  us  note  the  abiding  Word,  which  these  transient 
generations  of  hearers  and  speakers  have  had  to  do  with. 

It  is  maddening  to  think  of  the  sure  decay  and  disso- 
lution of  all  human  strength,  beauty,  wisdom,  unless  that 
thought  brings  with  it  immediately,  like  a  pair  of  coupled 
stars,  of  which  the  one  is  bright  and  the  other  dark,  the 
corresponding  thought  of  that  which  does  not  pass,  and 
is  unaffected  by  time  and  change.  Just  as  reason 
requires  some  unalterable  substratum,  below  all  the  fleet- 


DYINQ   MEN   AND  THE   UNDYING  WORD.  161 

ing  phenomena  of  tlie  changeful  creation — a  God  who  is 
the  Rock-basis  of  all,  the  staple  to  which  all  the  links 
hang — so  we  are  driven  back  and  back  and  back, 
by  the  very  fact  of  the  transiency  of  the  transient,  to 
grasp,  for  a  refuge  and  a  stay,  the  permanency  of  the 
Permanent.  "  In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died  I  saw 
the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne  " — the  passing  away  of 
the  mortal  shadow  of  sovereignty  revealed  the  undying 
and  true  King.  It  is  blessed  for  us  when  the  lesson 
which  the  fleeting  of  all  that  can  flee  away  reads  to  us  is 
that,  beneath  it  all,  there  is  the  Unchanging.  When 
the  leaves  drop  from  the  boughs  of  the  trees  that  veil  the 
face  of  the  cliff,  then  the  steadfast  rock  is  visible  ;  and 
when  the  generations,  like  leaves,  drop  and  rot,  then  the 
rock  background  should  stand  out  the  more  clearly. 

Zechariah  meant  by  the  "  word  of  God  "  simply  the 
prophetic  utterances  about  the  destiny  and  the  punish- 
ment of  his  nation.  We  ought  to  mean  by  the  "  word 
of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever,"  not  merely 
the  written  embodiment  of  it  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament, 
but  the  Personal  Word,  the  Incarnate  Word,  the  Ever- 
lasting Son  of  the  Father,  who  came  upon  earth  to  be 
God's  mouthpiece  and  utterance,  and  who  is  for  us  all 
the  Word,  the  Eternal  Word  of  the  Living  God.  It  is 
His  perpetual  existence  rather  than  the  continuous  dura- 
tion of  the  written  word,  declaration  of  Himself  though  it 
is,  that  is  mighty  for  our  strength  and  consolation  when 
we  think  of  the  transient  generations. 

Christ  lives.  That  is  the  deepest  meaning  of  the 
ancient  saying,  "All  flesh  is  grass,  .  .  .  The  Word  of 
the  Lord  endureth  for  ever."  He  lives  ;  therefore  we 
can  front  change  and  decay  in  all  around  calmly  and 

11 


162  DYING   MEN  AND   THE   UNDTESTG   WORD. 

triumphantly.  It  matters  not  though  the  prophets  and 
their  hearers  pass  away.  Men  depart ;  Christ  abides. 
Luther  was  once  surprised  by  some  friends  sitting  at 
a  table  from  which  a  meal  had  been  removed,  and 
thoughtfully  tracing  with  his  fingers  upon  its  surface 
with  some  drop  of  water  or  wine  the  one  word  "  Vivit "  ; 
He  lives.  He  fell  back  upon  that  when  all  around 
was  dark.  Yes,  men  may  go  ;  what  of  that  ?  Aaron 
may  have  to  ascend  to  the  summit  of  Hor,  and  put  off 
his  priestly  garments  and  die  there.  Moses  may  have 
to  climb  Pisgah,  and  with  one  look  at  the  land  which 
he  must  never  tread,  die  there  alone  by  the  kiss  of  God, 
as  the  Rabbis  say.  Is  the  host  below  leaderless  ?  The 
Pillar  of  Cloud  lies  still  over  the  Tabernacle,  and  burns 
steadfast  and  guiding  in  front  of  the  files  of  Israel. 
"  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?  The  prophets,  do  they 
live  for  ever  ?  "  "  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday 
and  to-day  and  for  ever." 

Another  consideration  to  be  drawn  from  this  contrast 
is,  since  we  have  this  abiding  Word,  let  us  not  dread 
changes,  however  startling  and  revolutionary.  Jesus 
Christ  does  not  change.  But  there  is  a  human  element 
in  the  Church's  conceptions  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  still 
more  in  its  working  out  of  the  principles  of  the  Gospel 
in  institutions  and  forms,  which  partakes  of  the  transiency 
of  the  men  from  whom  it  has  come.  In  such  a  time  as 
this,  when  everything  is  going  into  the  melting-pot,  and 
a  great  many  timid  people  are  trembling  for  the  Ark  of 
God,  quite  unnecessarily  as  it  seems  to  me,  it  is  of  prime 
importance  for  the  calmness  and  the  wisdom  and  the 
courage  of  Christian  people,  that  they  should  grasp  firmly 
the  distinction  between  the  Divine  treasure   which  is 


DYING   MBN   AND   THE    UNDYING   WORD.  163 

committed  to  the  Churches,  and  the  earthen  vessels  in 
which  it  has  been  enshrined.  Jesus  Christ,  the  Mar. 
Jesus,  the  Divine  Person,  His  Incarnation,  His  Sacrifice, 
His  Resurrection,  His  Ascension,  the  gift  of  His  Spirit 
to  abide  for  ever  with  His  Church — these  are  the  per- 
manent "  things  which  cannot  be  shaken."  And  creeds 
and  churches  and  formulas  and  forms — these  are  the 
human  elements  which  are  capable  of  variation,  and 
which  need  variation  from  time  to  time.  No  more  is 
the  substance  of  that  eternal  Gospel  affected  by  the 
changes,  which  are  possible  on  its  vesture,  than  is  the 
stateliness  of  some  cathedral  touched,  when  the  reformers 
go  in  and  sweep  out  the  rubbish  and  the  trumpery  whicb 
have  masked  the  fair  outlines  of  its  architecture,  and 
vulgarised  the  majesty  of  its  stately  sweep.  Brethren, 
let  us  fix  this  in  our  hearts,  that  nothing  which  is  of 
Christ  can  perish,  and  that  nothing  which  is  of  man 
can  or  should  endure.  The  more  firmly  we  grasp 
the  distinction  between  the  permanent  and  the  transient, 
in  existing  embodiments  of  Christian  truth,  the  more 
calm  shall  we  be  amidst  the  surges  of  contending 
opinions.     "  He  that  believeth  shall  not  make  haste." 

III.  Lastly,  the  present  generation  and  its  relation  to 
the  abiding  Word. 

Zechariah  did  not  hesitate  to  put  himself  in  line  with 
the  mighty  forms  of  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  and  Bzekiei^ 
and  Hosea.  He,  too,  was  a  prophet.  We  claim,  of 
course,  no  such  authority  for  present  utterers  of  that 
eternal  message,  but  we  do  claim  for  our  message  a 
higher  authority  than  the  authority  of  this  ancient 
prophet.  He  felt  that  the  word  of  God  that  was  put 
into    his    lips  was  a  new  word,  addressed  to  a  new 


164      DTINa  MEN  AND  THE  UNDYING  WOBD. 

generation,  and  with  new  lessons  for  new  circumstances, 
fitting  as  close  to  the  wants  of  the  little  band  of  exiles 
as  the  former  messages,  which  it  succeeded,  had  fitted  to 
the  wants  of  their  generation.  We  have  no  such  change 
in  the  message,  for  Jesus  Christ  speaks  to  us  all,  speaks 
to  all  times  and  to  all  circumstances,  and  to  every  genera- 
tion. And  so,  just  as  Zechariah  based  upon  the  history  of 
the  past  his  appeal  for  obedience  and  acceptance,  the  con- 
siderations which  I  have  been  trying  to  dwell  upon  bring 
with  them  stringent  obligations  to  us  who  stand,  how- 
ever unworthy,  in  the  place  of  the  generations  that  are 
gone,  as  the  hearers  and  ministers  of  the  Word  of  God. 

Let  me  put  two  or  three  very  simple  and  homely 
exhortations.  First,  see  to  it,  brother,  that  you  accept 
that  Word.  By  acceptance  I  do  not  mean  a  mere 
negative  attitude,  which  is  very  often  the  result  of  lack 
of  interest,  the  negative  attitude  of  simply  not  rejecting  ; 
but  I  mean  the  opening  not  only  of  your  minds  but  of 
your  hearts  to  it.  For  if  what  I  have  been  saying  is 
true,  and  the  Word  of  God  has  for  its  highest  manifesta- 
tion Jesus  Christ  Himself,  then  you  cannot  accept  a 
person  by  pure  head-work.  You  must  open  your  hearts 
and  aU  your  natures,  and  let  Him  come  in  with  His  love, 
with  His  pity,  with  His  inspiration  of  strength  and 
virtue  and  holiness,  and  you  must  yield  yourselves 
wholly  to  Him.  Think  of  the  generations  that  are  gone. 
Think  of  their  brief  moment  when  the  great  salvation 
was  offered  to  them.  Think  of  how,  whether  they 
received  or  rejected  it,  that  Word  took  hold  upon  them. 
Think  of  how  they  regard  it  now,  wherever  they  are  in 
the  dimness  ;  and  be  you  wise  in  time  and  be  not  as 
those  of  your  fathers  who  rejected  the  Word. 


DYING  MEN  AND  THE  UNDYING  WOBD.      165 

Hold  it  fast.  In  this  time  of  unrest  make  sure  of  your 
grasp  of  the  eternal,  central  core  of  Christianity,  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  the  Divine-human  Saviour  of  the  world. 
There  are  too  many  of  us  whose  faith  oozes  out  at  their 
finger-ends,  simply  because  they  have  so  many  around 
them  that  question  and  doubt  and  deny.  Do  not  let 
the  floating  icebergs  bring  down  your  temperature; 
and  have  a  better  reason  for  not  believing,  if  you  do  not 
believe,  than  that  so  many  and  such  influential  and 
authoritative  names  have  gone  away.  When  Jesus  asks, 
Will  ye  also  go  away  ?  our  answer  should  be,  "  Lord, 
to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life." 

Accept  Him,  hold  Him  fast,  trust  to  His  guidance  in 
present-day  questions.  Zechariah  felt  that  his  message 
belonged  to  the  generation  to  whom  he  spoke.  It  was 
a  new  message.  We  have  no  new  message,  but  there 
are  new  truths  to  be  evolved  from  the  old  message. 
The  questionings  and  problems,  social,  economical, 
intellectual,  moral — shall  I  say  political? — of  this  day, 
will  find  their  solution  in  that  ancient  Word,  "  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish." 
There  is  the  key  to  all  the  problems.  "  In  Him  are  hid 
all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge." 

Zechariah  pointed  to  the  experiences  of  a  past 
generation  as  the  basis  of  his  appeal.  We  can  point 
back  to  eighteen  centuries,  and  say  that  the  experiences 
of  these  centuries  confirm  the  truth  that  Jesus  Christ 
IS  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  The  blessedness,  the 
purity,  the  power,  the  peace,  the  hope  which  He  has 
breathed  into  humanity,  the  subsidiary  and  accompany- 


166  DYING   MEN   AND    THE   UNDYING   WORD. 

ing  material  and  intellectual  prosperity  and  blessings 
that  attend  His  message,  its  independence  of  hnman 
instruments,  its  adaptation  to  all  varieties  of  class, 
character,  condition,  geographical  position,  its  power 
of  recuperating  itself  from  corruptions  and  distortions, 
its  undiminished  adaptedness  to  the  needs  of  this  genera- 
tion and  of  each  of  us — enforce  the  stringency  of  the 
exhortation,  and  confirm  the  truth  of  the  assertion  : 
"  This  is  My  beloved  Son  ;  hear  ye  Him  I  "  "  The 
voice  said,  Cry.  And  I  said,  What  shall  I  cry  ?  All 
flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  goodliness  thereof  as  the 
flower  of  the  field :  the  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower 
thereof  falleth  away :  but  the  Word  of  our  God  shall 
stand  for  ever."  Three  hundred  years  after  Isaiah  a 
triumphant  Apostle  added,  "  This  is  the  Word  which 
by  the  Gospel  is  preached  unto  you."  Eighteen  hundred 
years  after  Peter,  we  can  echo  his  confident  declaration, 
and,  with  the  history  of  these  centuries  to  support  our 
faith,  can  affirm  that  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel  and  the 
Gospel  of  the  Christ  are  in  deed  and  in  truth  the  Living 
Word  of  the  Living  God. 


CITIZENSHIP    IN    HEAVEN. 

"Only  let  your  conversation  be  as  it  becometh  the  gospel  of  Christ 
.  .  .  that  ye  stand  fast  in  one  spirit,  with  one  mind  striving  together 
tor  the  faith  of  the  Gospel;  and  in  nothing  terrified  by  your 
adversaries." — Phil.  i.  27,  28. 

WHEN  onr  translation  of  the  Scriptures  was  made, 
"conversation"  meant  manner  of  life.  It  has 
now  dwindled  to  mean  talk.  But  the  rendering  of  our 
version  was  inadequate  even  when  the  word  had  its 
nobler  and  fuller  meaning.  For,  though  it  then  con- 
tained the  substance  of  the  Apostle's  exhortation  in  a 
general  fashion,  it  entirely  obliterated  the  striking  figure 
which,  as  many  of  you  know,  underlies  the  exhortation. 
Instead  of  "  let  your  conversation  be  "  we  ought  to  read 
"  play  the  citizen "  ;  or,  as  the  margin  of  the  Revised 
Version  has  it,  "  behave  as  citizens,  worthily  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ." 

Now,  what  led  the  Apostle  to  cast  his  exhortation 
into  this  remarkable  form  ?  Perhaps  the  answer  will 
be  found  by  remembering  the  note  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  about  this  same  city  of  Philippi,  that  it  was 
"  a  colony."  Now,  the  connection  between  a  Roman 
colony  and  Rome  was  a  great  deal  closer  than  that 
between  an  English  coloay  and  England.  The  colonists 
and  their  children  were  Roman  citizens.     Their  names 

167 


168  OITIZBKBHIP    IN    HEAVEN. 

were  borne  on  the  roll  of  the  Roman  tribes.  They  were 
not  amenable  to  the  provincial  governor,  but  to  their 
own  magistrates  ;  and  these  administered,  not  the  local 
codes,  bnt  the  Roman  law.  If  we  remember  all  these 
things,  they  give  special  force  to  the  form  of  the  ex- 
hortation here.  No  doubt  many  of  the  Philippian 
Christians,  like  Paul  himself,  possessed  these  privileges. 
They  lived  in  Philippi  ;  they  belonged  to  Rome.  And 
so  Paul  would  have  them  do  by  their  true  mother  city 
what,  as  colonists,  they  did  by  Rome  :  realise  that  they 
belonged  to  it,  live  by  its  laws,  feel  the  unity  of  their 
citizenship,  and  fight  for  the  extension  of  its  territory. 
I  do  not  venture  to  adopt  the  tone  of  command  befitting 
an  Apostle,  but  let  me  put  his  commandments  into 
exhortations. 

I.  Let  us  behave  as  citizens  of  the  great  city. 

My  text  does  not  mean,  as  it  is  sometimes  quoted  as 
if  it  meant,  "  act^  as  citizens  "  of  an  earthly  kingdom 
or  community,  in  a  manner  becoming  the  Gospel  ; 
though  a  good  many  of  our  citizens  and  statesmen  would 
be  all  the  better  if  they  took  that  application  of  the 
words  to  heart.  But  the  community  to  which  we  are 
to  feel  that  we  belong  is  the  great  mother  city  beyond 
the  sea.  We  live  in  Philippi ;  we  belong  to  Rome. 
We  are  members  of  another  polity  than  that  which 
surrounds  us.  And,  "sometimes,  in  calm  weather," 
our  souls  can  catch  a  sight  from  some  height  of  its 
sparkling  buildings,  lying  dreamlike  on  the  opal  waves 
and  bathed  in  unsetting  sunshine. 

So,  brethren,  if  we  are  Christian  men  and  women, 
surely  one  of  our  first  duties  is  to  keep  fresh  and  vivid 
in  OUT  souls  the  sense  that  "  here  we  have  no  continuing: 


CITIZENSHIP   IN    HEAVEN.  169 

city,**  not  because  that  truth  is  bitterly  bitten  into  onr 
souls  by  the  aquafortis  of  Change,  but  because  it  is 
the  happy  result  of  our  happy  seeking  after  the  city 
that  is  to  come.  To  all  you  Christian  people  the  words 
are  applicable  as  to  the  verity  of  your  true  affinities 
and  beiongiags,  whether  they  are  realised  conscionsly 
or  no  :  "  ye  are  come  into  the  city  of  the  living  God." 

True,  as  in  Rome  and  in  London,  and  many  another 
capital,  a  stream  lies  between  the  principal  part,  where 
the  palaces  of  the  King  are,  and  the  suburb  on  the  other 
side.    But  the  communities  are  one — 

"Though  now  divided  by  the  stream. 
The  narrow  stream  of  death." 

Brethren,  there  is  nothing — or,  let  me  not  exaggerate — 
there  are  few  things  that  the  average  Christianity  of 
this  day  needs  more  than  that  note  of  unworldliness, 
of  belonging  to  another  community  than  that  in  which 
our  lot  in  the  present  is  cast,  which  my  text  prescribes 
for  us.  We  must  speak  the  language  of  the  land  in 
which  we  dwell,  but  we  should  speak  it  with  a  foreign 
accent.  There  should  be  something  about  us,  even  when 
we  are  doing  the  same  things  as  other  people  do — and 
which  we  must  to  a  large  extent  do — that  tells  that  the 
same  things  are  by  us  done  from  such  different  motives, 
that  they  become  different  from  themselves,  when  done 
by  the  men  whose  cares,  and  interests,  and  hopes  are 
"  cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined "  by  the  triviality  of 
the  transient  present. 

And  that  wholesome  detachment  will  enfeeble  no 
work,  will  darken  no  joy,  but  it  will  take  the  poison  out 
of  many  a  sorrow,  and  it  will  make  small  things  great, 


170  CITIZENSHIP  IN   HEAVEN. 

and  to  be  greatly  done.  He  that  stands  above  his  work 
can  come  down  upon  it  with  more  efficient  blows,  and 
the  man  that  is  lifted  above  the  things  seen  and  temporal 
will  be  able  to  draw  all  the  sweetness  out  of  them,  to 
recognise  all  the  nobleness  in  them,  and  to  work  nobly 
upon  them.  You  are  the  citizens  of  another  community, 
therefore  you  are  to  work  here  worthily  thereof. 

Now,  our  Apostle  in  these  words  not  only  prescribes 
the  duty  of  keeping  fresh  that  consciousness  of  belonging 
to  another  order,  but  he  points  to  the  imperial  law  to 
which  the  colonists  are  to  submit — "  worthily  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ."  I  said  that  the  Roman  colonist  in 
Philippi  was  not  governed  by  the  law  of  Macedonia,  but 
by  that  of  Rome.  We,  if  we  are  Christian  people,  are 
not  to  be  ruled  and  directed  by  the  maxims  of  the  world, 
still  less  by  the  notions  that  are  current  in  the  society 
to  which  we  happen  to  belong,  but  are  to  take  our 
commandments  at  first  hand.  "  I  appeal  unto  Caesar," 
and  I  get  my  law  from  his  autocratic  lips. 

For  the  Gospel  which  we  say  we  believe  is  not  only 
a  set  of  credenda — things  to  be  believed — but  a  set  of 
agenda — things  to  be  done ;  and  in  Christ  Himself,  and 
in  the  principles  which  underlie  His  life  and  His  mani- 
festation, and  which  plainly  flow  from  all  His  course  and 
from  His  Cross,  there  lie  the  germs  of  all  human  duty, 
and  principles  which  may  be  applied  to  the  smallest 
and  the  greatest  things.  The  least  and  the  largest  of 
duties  come  under  the  one  law  of  obligation,  and  the 
manner  of  their  discharge  can  be  found  in  the  one  life 
and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  truths  that  are 
wrapped  up  therein.  We  do  not  need  a  tangle  of 
precepts.     Our  law  has  been  codified,  and  it  is  contained 


CITIZENSHIP   IN   HEAVEN.  171 

in  Him  "  who  hath  left  ns  an  example  that  we  should 
follow  in  His  steps." 

Only  let  your  citizenship  be  discharged  worthily  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ ;  there  is  the  law,  the  all-sufficient 
law.  The  same  law  that  holds  together  two  invisible 
atoms  binds  the  planets  into  a  system  ;  and  "  the  most 
ancient  heavens  *'  in  all  their  abysses  "  by  it  are  fresh 
and  strong."  Here  is  the  all-comprehensive  command- 
ment, large  enough  to  dominate  the  mightiest,  flexible 
enough  to  be  applied  to  the  most  entangled,  capable 
of  being  brought  to  bear  on  the  minutest :  "  Only  let 
your  conversation  be  as  it  becometh  the  Gospel  of 
Christ." 

II.  Let  us  steadfastly  hold  by  the  unity  of  the  city. 

One  of  the  secrets  of  Rome's  conquering  power  was 
that  to  every  citizen  the  idea  of  the  city  had  become 
a  religion.  And  so,  however  there  might  be  diversities 
of  judgment  in  the  Forum  where  they  assembled 
together,  they  were  as  one  man  when  the  enemy  was 
at  the  gates  or  when  the  eagles  had  to  be  carried  afield. 
Therefore,  though  far  inferior  to  the  swift-minded  Greek, 
whose  quickness  of  spirit  carried  with  it  the  fatal  gift 
of  divisiveness,  they,  by  their  steadfastly  linked  power, 
overthrew  a  world.  Paul  would  have  us,  in  our  degree 
and  fashion,  follow  such  an  example,  standing  fast  "  in 
the  unity  of  the  spirit." 

Now,  it  may  be  a  question  whether  we  should  spell 
"  spirit "  here  with  a  capital  or  a  little  letter.  In  the 
one  case  the  reference  would  be  directly  to  the  Divine 
Spirit ;  in  the  other  case  it  would  be  to  the  Christian 
spirit,  actuated  by  that  Divine  Spirit.  Substantially 
the  meaning  comes  to  be  the  same  in  either  case.    A 


172  crriZENSHrp  in  heaybn. 

Christian  man's  spirit  is  always  regarded  in  the  New 
Testament  as  working  under,  and  operated  on  by,  that 
Divine  Spirit  which  is  given  to  every  man  that  believes 
in  Jesus  Christ.  And  it  is  the  unity,  that  is  brought 
about  by  the  operation  of  that  one  Spirit  working  in 
the  spirits  of  all  the  citizens,  that  is  suggested  in  our 
text.  There  is  a  deeper  region  in  human  nature  than 
the  intellect  that  works  by  reasoning,  and  that  formulates 
its  conclusions  in  propositions,  and  it  is  by  the  partici- 
pation of  that  deeper  element  in  us  all  in  the  one  Spirit 
of  God  that  our  oneness  is  realised.  Translate  that 
into  modern  language,  and  it  just  comes  to  this,  that 
our  unity  does  not  lie  in  identity  of  opinion,  or  in  the 
adoption  of  like  forms  or  methods,  but  it  lies  in  the 
participation  in  a  common  life.  "  We  are  one  bread," 
says  Paul,  "  because  we  all  partake  of  that  one  bread." 
And  Christian  men  and  women  will  never  be  brought 
together  into  anything  but  an  illusive,  external,  frozen 
unity,  unless  we  dig  deep  down  beneath  the  region  of 
opinion,  and  come  to  the  region  where  the  secrets  of 
the  life  lie,  and  be  one  because  the  life  of  the  one  Lord 
is  in  us  all. 

But  the  exhortation  of  my  text  suggests  for  us  that 
there  are  divisive  tendencies  which  we  have  to  resist ; 
and  it  suggests,  too,  that  the  realisation  of  common 
citizenship,  and,  therein,  of  unity,  supplies  a  powerful 
aid  to  steadfastness,  and  is  the  firm  ground  on  which 
we  can  stand  firm.  Isolated,  we  may  be  overwhelmed  ; 
linked,  we  are  strong.  The  legionaries  had  hooks  on 
their  shields,  which  fitted  into  eyes  on  their  neighbours* 
bucklers  ;  and  thus  linked  together  they  made  a  wall 
of  steel.     Half  a  dozen  men,  with  their  arms  interlocked 


CITIZENSHIP   IN    HEAVEN.  173 

m  each  others',  can  resist  an  ngly  rush  that  would  sweep 
them  away  singly.  If  we  realise  our  unity  in  the 
Spirit  we  shall  stand  fast  in  one  spirit.  Each  of  us 
rooting  himself  in  the  Vine,  we  shall  be  close  to  each 
other. 

III.  Lastly,  let  us  fight  for  the  faith. 

"  In  one  mind  striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the 
Gospel."  The  unity  of  spirit,  which  is  realised  in  the 
depths  of  the  nature,  will,  to  a  large  extent,  well  up 
into  the  more  snpejficial  elements  of  humanity,  and 
will  bring  about  a  competent  oneness  of  mind.  Churches 
have  too  often  reversed  the  process,  and  thought  they 
would  begin  by  making  all  their  members  think  alike, 
and  then  they  would  all  feel  alike.  Paul  says,  begin 
by  feeling  alike,  and  you  will  come  in  reasonable  measure 
to  think  alike.  Let  there  be  the  one  spirit,  and  there 
will  be  as  much  of  the  one  mind  as  is  necessary  for  union. 

"  In  one  mind  striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the 
Gospel."  The  word  "faith"  seems  here  to  be  used 
abnormally,  in  its  later  common  ecclesiastical  significa- 
tion, by  which  it  means  not  the  act  of  belief  but  the 
sum  and  contents  of  the  thing  believed.  Though, 
perhaps,  even  here  we  might  see  the  more  frequent 
sense  as  still  in  force ;  "  striving  together  for  the  faith 
of  the  Gospel"  may  mean  striving  together  that  faith 
may  rule  in  our  own  hearts  and  in  those  of  others ;  but 
I  think  the  other  meaning  is  perhaps  the  more  probable 
— viz.,  that  the  body  of  Christian  truth  which  Paul 
had  delivered  to  the  Philippians  is  by  him  here  desig- 
nated the  faith,  the  things  believed.  And  to  strive 
for  that  is  our  business,  Christian  people,  in  this  world. 
What  has  God  made  us  Christians  for  ?    For  our  own 


174  CITIZENSHIP    IN   HEAVEN. 

well-being  and  elevation  ?  Yes  I  For  onr  own  well-being 
and  salvation  only  ?  No,  but  that  the  leaven  might 
spread  from  each  leavened  particle  to  the  unleavened 
one  that  lies  next  it,  and  God's  grace  fructify  through 
us  to  all. 

Rome  had  an  expedient,  which  Russia  in  later  ages 
copied,  of  setting  on  the  frontiers  military  colonies  whose 
one  business  was  to  keep  the  marches  and  to  push 
forward  the  boundaries.  You  and  I  are  set  here  for 
that  purpose,  to  see  to  it  that  not  one  inch  be  encroached 
upon,  but  rather  that  continuously,  with  a  pressure 
that  is  as  irresistible,  though  it  may  be  as  slow,  as  that 
of  a  glacier,  the  territory  of  the  Lord  Christ  be  pushed 
forward  in  the  world.  We,  as  well  as  Nansen's  men, 
ought  to  feel  that  the  name  of  the  ship  that  we  are 
on  is  the  Fram — "The  Forward" — and  should  take 
the  dying  word  of  the  Roman  Catholic  martyr-missionary 
saint  for  ours,  "  Amplius  !  Amplius  !  "  further,  further 
afield.     "  Striving  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel." 

My  text  adds  the  temper  in  which  this  striving  should 
be  carried  on.  "In  nothing  terrified  by  your  adver- 
saries." The  metaphor  is  taken  from  the  shying  of 
a  horse  at  some  obstacle.  Now,  horses  shy  partly  from 
nervousness  and  partly  from  dim  sight.  And  the  latter, 
as  well  as  the  former,  is  a  reason  for  a  great  deal  of  the 
downcast  pessimist  talk  of  weak-hearted  Christians  in 
this  generation.  There  is  nothing  to  be  afraid  about.  A 
great  deal  will  change ;  a  great  deal  that  some  of  us  think 
very  sacred  will  go.  The  removing  of  the  things  that 
are  shakeable  and  "  shaken  "  takes  place  that  "  the  things 
which  cannot  be  shaken  may  remain."  And  they  will 
remain.    The  Ark  is  quite  safe.     I  do  not  say  as  much 


OinZBNSHIF  IK   HEAVBN.  175 

about  the  cart  that  carries  it,  but  the  Ark  is  safe  enough  ; 
which,  being  interpreted,  is  this  :  Jesus  Christ,  His  life, 
His  death,  His  redemption,  His  salvation.  His  Spirit, 
His  Church  endure,  and  will  endure.  So,  "in  nothing 
terrified  by  your  adversaries." 

That  courage  fulfils  itself — "which  is  to  them  an 
evident  token  of  perdition,  and  to  you  of  salvation." 
That  courageous  confidence  is  based  upon  personal 
experience  :  "  We  have  heard  Him  ourselves,  and  know 
that  this  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world."  It  is  based  on 
nineteen  centuries,  and  it  is  based  upon  a  sure  hope. 
The  striking  metaphor  of  my  text  is  once  again  employed 
by  Paul  in  this  letter.  The  other  use  of  it  bears  upon  that 
subject  of  the  hope  of  the  militant  Christians  ;  for  he 
says,  in  another  part  of  the  epistle,  "  our  citizenship  is  in 
heaven,  from  whence  also  we  look  for  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  Saviour."  The  fight  is  at  its  sorest,  and 
"  through  the  long-tormented  air  "  are  heard  the  bugles 
of  an  advancing  force.  Down  on  to  the  field  comes  as 
Saviour  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  ;  and  His  onset 
scatters  the  enemy,  and  the  colonists  who  were  fighting 
at  the  outpost  fall  in  behind  Him,  and  swell  His  train, 
and  partake  of  His  triumphal  entry  into  the  City  of  the 
Living  God. 


A   FATHER'S   DISCIPLINE. 

**For  they  verily  for  a  few  days  chastened  ob  after  their  ovra 
pleasure;  bat  He  for  oar  profit,  that  we  might  be  partakers  of  His 
holiness." — Hub.  xii.  10. 

FEW  words  of  Scripture  have  been  oftener  than  these 
laid  as  a  healing  balm  on  wounded  hearts.  They  may 
be  long  unnoticed  on  the  page,  like  a  lighthouse  in  calm 
sunshine,  but  sooner  or  later  the  stormy  night  falls, 
and  then  the  bright  beam  flashes  out  and  is  welcome. 
They  go  very  deep  into  the  meaning  of  life  as  discipline  ; 
they  tell  us  how  much  better  God's  discipline  is  than  that 
of  the  most  loving  and  wise  of  parents,  and  they  give 
that  superiority  as  a  reason  for  our  yielding  more  entire 
and  cheerfal  obedience  to  Him  than  we  do  to  such. 

Now,  to  grasp  the  ftiU  meaning  of  these  words,  we 
have  to  notice  that  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  dis- 
ciplines are  described  in  four  contrasted  clauses,  which 
are  arranged  in  what  students  call  inverted  parallelism — 
that  is  to  say,  the  first  clause  corresponds  to  the  fourth, 
and  the  second  to  the  third.  "For  a  few  days"  pairs 
off  with  "  that  we  might  be  partakers  of  His  holiness." 
Now,  that  does  not  seem  a  contrast  at  first  sight ;  but 
notice  that  the  "  for "  in  the  former  clause  is  not  the 
"  for  "  of  duration,  but  of  direction.  It  does  not  tell  us  the 
space  during  which  the  chastisement  or  discipline  lasts, 

176 


A  father's  discipline.  177 

bnt  the  end  towards  -which  it  is  pointed.  The  earthly- 
parent's  discipline  trains  a  boy  or  girl  for  circumstances, 
pursuits,  occnpations,  professions,  all  of  which  terminate 
with  .the  brief  span  of  life.  God's  training  is  for  an 
eternal  day.  It  would  be  quite  irrelevant  to  bring  in 
here  any  reference  to  the  length  of  time  during  which 
an  earthly  father's  discipline  lasts,  but  it  is  in  full 
consonance  with  the  writer's  intention  to  dwell  upon  the 
limited  scope  of  the  one,  and  the  wide  and  eternal 
purpose  of  the  other. 

Then,  as  for  the  other  contrast — "for  their  own 
pleasure,"  or,  as  the  Revised  Version  reads  it,  "  as 
seemed  good  to  them " — "  but  He  for  our  profit." 
Elements  of  personal  peculiarity,  whim,  passion,  limited 
and  possibly  erroneous  conceptions  of  what  is  the  right 
thing  to  do  for  the  child,  enter  into  the  training  of  the 
wisest  and  most  loving  amongst  us  ;  and  we  often  make 
a  mistake  and  do  harm  when  we  think  we  are  doing 
good.  But  God's  training  is  all  from  a  simple  and 
unerring  regard  to  the  benefit  of  His  child.  Thus,  the 
guiding  principle  of  the  two  disciplines  are  contrasted 
in  the  two  central  clauses. 

Now,  these  are  very  threadbare,  commonplace,  and 
old-fashioned  thoughts  ;  but,  perhaps,  they  are  so  familiar 
that  they  have  not  their  proper  power  over  us  ;  and 
I  wish  to  try  in  this  sermon,  if  I  can,  to  get  more 
into  them,  or  to  get  them  more  into  us,  by  one  or  two 
very  plain  remarks. 

I.  I  would  ask  you  to  note,  first,  the  grand,  deep, 
general  conception,  here  firmly  laid  hold  of,  of  life  as 
only  intelligible  when  it  is  regarded  as  education  or 
discipline. 

18 


178  A  father's  discipline. 

He  corrects,  chastens,  trains,  educates.  That  is  the 
deepest  word  about  everything  that  befalls  us.  Now, 
there  are  involved  in  that  two  or  three  very  obvious 
thoughts,  which  would  make  us  all  calmer  and  nobler 
and  stronger,  if  they  were  vividly  and  vitally  present  to 
us  day  by  day. 

The  first  is  that  all  which  befalls  us  has  a  will  behind 
it  and  is  co-operant  to  an  end.  Life  is  not  a  heap  of 
unconnected  incidents,  like  a  number  of  links  flung 
down  on  the  ground,  but  the  links  are  a  chain,  and  the 
chain  has  a  staple.  It  is  not  a  law  without  a  law-giver 
that  shapes  men's  lives.  It  is  not  a  blind,  impersonal 
Chance  that  presides  over  it.  Why,  these  very  meteors 
that  astronomers  expect  in  Autumn  to  be  flying  and 
flashing  through  the  sky  in  apparent  wild  disorder,  all 
obey  law.  Our  lives,  in  like  manner,  are  embodied 
thoughts  of  God's,  in  as  far  as  the  incidents  which 
befall  in  them  are  concerned.  We  may  mar,  may  fight 
against,  may  contradict  the  presiding  Divine  purpose  ; 
but  yet,  behind  the  wild  dance  of  flashing  and  transitory 
lights  that  go  careering  all  over  the  sky,  there  guides, 
not  an  impersonal  Power,  but  a  living,  loving  Will. 
He^  not  it\  He,  not  they — men,  circumstances,  what 
people  call  second  causes — He  corrects,  and  He  does  it 
for  a  great  purpose. 

Ah  I  if  we  believed  that,  and  not  merely  said  it,  from 
the  teeth  outwards,  but  if  it  were  a  living  conviction 
with  us,  do  you  not  think  our  lives  would  tower  up  into  a 
nobleness,  and  settle  themselves  down  into  a  tranquillity 
all  strange  to  them  to-day  ? 

But,  then,  further,  there  is  the  other  thought  to  be 
grasped,  that  all  our  days  we  are  here  in  a  state  of 


A  father's  discipline.  179 

pupilage.  The  world  is  God's  nursery.  There  are  many 
mansions  in  the  Father's  honse  ;  and  this  earth  is  where 
He  keeps  the  little  ones.  That  is  the  true  meaning 
of  everything  that  befalls  us.  It  is  education.  Work 
would  not  be  worth  doing  if  it  were  not.  Life  is  given 
to  us  to  teach  us  how  to  live,  to  exercise  our  powers,  to 
give  us  habits  and  facilities  of  working.  We  are  like 
boys  in  a  training  ship  that  lies  for  most  of  the  time 
in  harbour,  and  now  and  then  goes  out  upon  some  short 
and  easy  cruise  ;  not  for  the  sake  of  getting  anywhere  in 
particular,  but  for  the  sake  of  exercising  the  lads  in 
seamanship.  There  is  no  meaning  worthy  of  us — to  say 
nothing  of  God — in  anything  that  we  do,  unless  it  is 
looked  upon  as  schooling.  We  all  say  we  believe  that. 
Alas !  I  am  afraid  very  many  of  us  forget  it. 

But  that  conception  of  the  meaning  of  each  event  that 
befalls  us  carries  with  it  the  conception  of  the  whole  of 
this  life,  as  being  an  education  towards  another.  I  do 
not  understand  how  any  man  can  bear  to  live  here,  and 
to  do  all  his  painful  work,  unless  he  thinks  that  by 
it  he  is  getting  ready  for  the  life  beyond  ;  and  that 
"  nothing  can  bereave  him  of  the  force  he  made  his  own, 
being  here."  The  rough  ore  is  turned  into  steel  by 
being 

"Plunged  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 
And  heated  hot  with  hopes  and  fears, 
And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom." 

And  then — what  then  ?  Is  an  instrument,  thus  fashioned 
and  tempered  and  polished,  destined  to  be  broken  and 
"thrown  as  rubbish  into  the  void"?  Certainly  not. 
If  this  life  is  education,  as  is  obvious  upon  its  very  face, 


180  A  father's  discipline. 

then  there  is  a  place  where  we  shall  exercise  the  facilities 
that  we  have  acquired  here,  and  manifest  in  loftier 
forms  the  characters  which  here  we  have  made  our  own. 

Now,  brethren,  if  we  carry  these  thoughts  with  us 
habitually,  what  a  diiference  it  will  make  upon  everything 
that  befalls  us  1  You  hear  men  often  maundering  and 
murmuring  about  the  mysteries  of  the  pain  and  sorrow 
and  suffering  of  this  world,  wondering  if  there  is  any 
loving  Will  behind  it  all.  That  perplexed  questioning 
goes  on  the  hypothesis  that  life  is  meant  mainly  for 
enjoyment  or  for  material  good.  If  we  once  apprehended 
in  its  all-applicable  range  this  simple  truth,  that  life 
is  a  discipline,  we  should  have  less  difficulty  in  under- 
standing what  people  call  the  mysteries  of  Providence. 
I  do  not  say  it  would  interpret  everything,  but  it  would 
interpret  an  immense  deal.  It  would  make  us  eager,  as 
each  event  came,  to  find  out  its  special  mission  and  what 
it  was  meant  to  do  for  us.  It  would  dignify  trifles,  and 
bring  down  the  overwhelming  magnitude  of  the  so-called 
great  events,  and  would  make  us  lords  of  ourselves,  and 
lords  of  circumstances,  and  ready  to  wring  the  last  drop 
of  possible  advantage  out  of  each  thing  that  befell  us. 
Life  is  a  Father's  discipline. 

II.  Note  the  guiding  principle  of  that  discipline. 

"  They  ...  as  seemed  good  to  them."  I  have  already 
said  that,  even  in  the  most  wise  and  unselfish  training 
by  an  earthly  parent,  there  will  mingle  subjective 
elements,  peculiarities  of  view  and  thought,  and  some- 
times of  passion  and  whim  and  other  ingredients,  which 
detract  from  the  value  of  all  such  training.  The  guiding 
{'linciple  for  each  earthly  parent  can  only  be  his  con- 
uption  of  what  is  for  the  good  of  his  child,  even  at  the 


A  father's  discipline.  181 

best ;  and  oftentimes  that  is  not  purely  the  guide  by  which 
the  parent's  discipline  is  directed.  So  the  text  turns  ns 
away  from  all  these  incompletenesses,  and  tells  ns,  "  He 
for  our  profit " — with  no  sidelong  look  to  anything  else, 
and  with  an  entirely  wise  knowledge  of  what  is  best 
for  us,  so  that  the  result  will  be  always  and  only  for 
our  good.  This  is  the  point  of  view  from  which  every 
Christian  man  ought  to  look  upon  all  that  befalls  him. 

What  follows  ?  This,  plainly :  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  evil  except  the  evil  of  sin.  All  that  comes  is 
good — of  various  sorts  and  various  complexions,  but  all 
generically  the  same.  The  inundation  comes  up  over 
the  fields,  and  men  are  in  despair.  It  goes  down  ;  and 
then,  like  the  slime  left  from  the  Nile  in  flood,  there  is 
better  soil  for  the  fertilising  of  our  fields.  Storms  keep 
sea  and  air  from  stagnating.  All  that  men  call  evil,  in 
the  material  world,  has  in  it  a  soul  of  good. 

That  is  an  old,  old  commonplace  ;  but,  like  the  other 
one,  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  it  is  more  often 
professed  than  realised,  and  we  need  to  be  brought  back 
to  the  recognition  of  it  more  entirely  than  we  ordinarily 
are.  If  it  be  that  all  my  life  is  paternal  discipline,  and 
that  God  makes  no  mistakes,  then  I  can  embrace 
whatever  comes  to  me,  and  be  sure  that  in  it  I  shall 
find  that  which  will  be  for  my  good. 

Ah,  brethren,  it  is  easy  to  say  so  when  things  go 
well ;  but,  surely,  when  the  night  falls  is  the  time  for 
the  stars  to  shine.  That  gracious  word  should  shine  upon 
some  of  us  in  to-day's  perplexities,  and  pains,  and 
disappointments,  and  sorrows — "  He  for  our  profit." 

Now,  that  great  thought  does  not  in  the  least  deny  the 
fact  that  pain  and  sorrow,  and  so-called  evil,  are  very 


182  A  father's  discipline. 

real.  There  is  no  false  stoicism  in  Christianity.  The 
mission  of  onr  troubles  would  not  be  effected  unless  they 
did  trouble  us.  The  good  that  we  get  from  a  sorrow 
would  not  be  realised  unless  we  did  sorrow.  "  Weep 
for  yourselves,"  said  the  Master,  "  and  for  your  children." 
It  is  right  that  we  should  writhe  in  pain.  It  is  right 
that  we  should  yield  to  the  impressions  that  are  made 
upon  us  by  calamities.  But  it  is  not  right  that  we 
should  be  so  affected  as  that  we  should  fail  to  discern  in 
them  this  gracious  thought — "for  our  profit."  God 
sends  us  many  love-tokens,  and  amongst  them  are  the 
great  and  the  little  annoyances  and  pains  that  beset  our 
lives,  and  on  each  of  them,  if  we  would  look,  we  should 
see  written,  in  His  own  hand,  this  inscription  :  "  For 
your  good."  Do  not  let  us  have  our  eyes  so  full  of  tears 
that  we  cannot  see,  or  our  hearts  so  full  of  regrets  that 
we  cannot  accept,  that  sweet,  strong  message. 

The  guiding  principle  of  all  that  befalls  us  is  God's 
unerring  knowledge  of  what  will  do  us  good.  That 
will  not  prevent,  and  is  not  meant  to  prevent,  the  arrow 
from  wounding,  but  it  does  wipe  the  poison  off  the 
arrow,  and  diminish  the  pain,  and  should  diminish  the 
tears, 

III.  Lastly,  here  we  see  the  great  aim  of  all  the 
discipline. 

The  earthly  parent  trains  his  son,  or  her  daughter, 
for  earthly  occupations.  These  last  a  little  while.  God 
trains  us  for  an  eternal  end :  "  that  we  should  be 
partakers  of  His  holiness."  The  one  object  which  is 
congruous  with  a  man's  nature,  and  is  stamped  on  his 
whole  being,  as  its  only  adequate  end,  is  that  he  should 
1  e  like   God.      Holiness  is  the    Scriptural    shorthand 


A  father's  discipline.  183 

expression  for  all  that  in  the  Divine  nature  which 
separates  God  from,  and  lifts  Him  above,  the  creature  ; 
and  in  that  aspect  of  the  word  the  gulf  can  never  be 
lessened  nor  bridged  between  us  and  Him.  But  it  also 
is  the  expression  for  the  moral  purity  and  perfection  of 
that  Divine  nature  which  separates  Him  from  the 
creatures  far  more  really  than  do  the  metaphysical 
attributes  that  belong  to  His  infinitude  and  eternity  ; 
and  in  that  aspect  the  great  hope  that  is  given  to  us  is 
that  we  may  rise  nearer  and  nearer  to  that  perfect 
whiteness  of  purity,  and  though  we  cannot  share  in 
His  essential,  changeless  being,  may  "  walk  " — as  befits 
our  limited  and  changeful  natures — "  in  the  light,  as 
He  " — as  befits  His  boundless  and  eternal  being — '■'■is  in 
the  light."  That  is  the  only  end  which  it  is  worthy  of 
a  man,  being  what  he  is,  to  propose  to  himself  as  the 
issue  of  his  earthly  experience.  If  I  fail  in  that, 
whatever  else  1  have  accomplished,  I  fail  in  everything. 
I  may  have  made  myself  rich,  cultured,  learned,  famous, 
refined,  prosperous  ;  but  if  I  have  not  at  least  begun  to 
be  like  God  in  purity,  in  will,  in  heart,  then  my  whole 
career  has  missed  the  purpose  for  which  I  was  made, 
and  for  which  all  the  discipline  of  life  has  been  lavished 
upon  me.  Fail  there,  and,  wherever  you  succeed,  you 
are  a  failure.  Succeed  there,  and,  wherever  you  fail, 
you  are  a  success. 

That  great  and  only  worthy  end  may  be  reached  by 
the  ministration  of  circumstances  and  the  discipline 
through  which  God  passes  us.  These  are  not  the  only 
ways  by  which  He  makes  us  partakers  of  His  holiness, 
as  we  well  know.  There  is  the  work  of  that  Divine 
Spirit  who  is  granted  to  every  believer  to  breathe  into 


184  ▲  father's  disoiplinb. 

him  the  holy  breath  of  an  immortal  and  incorruptible 
life.  To  work  along  with  these  there  is  the  influence 
that  is  brought  to  bear  upon  us  by  the  circumstances 
in  which  we  are  placed  and  the  duties  which  we  have 
to  perform.  These  may  all  help  us  to  be  nearer  and 
liker  to  God. 

That  is  the  intention  of  our  sorrows.  They  will  wean 
us  J  they  will  refine  us  ;  they  will  blow  us  to  His 
breast,  as  a  strong  wind  might  sweep  a  man  into 
some  refuge  from  itself.  I  am  sure  that  among  my 
hearers  there  are  some  who  can  thankfully  attest  that 
they  were  brought  nearer  to  God  by  some  short,  sharp 
sorrow  than  by  many  long  days  of  prosperity.  What 
Absalom,  in  his  wayward,  impulsive  way,  did  with  Joab 
is  like  what  God  sometimes  does  with  His  sons.  Joab 
would  not  come  to  Absalom's  palace,  so  Absalom  set 
his  corn  on  fire  ;  and  then  Joab  came.  So  God  some- 
times burns  our  harvests  that  we  may  go  to  Him.' 

But  the  sorrow  that  is  meant  to  bring  us  nearer  to 
Him  may  be  in  vain.  The  same  circumstances  may 
produce  opposite  efi"ects.  I  daresay  there  are  people 
listening  to  me  now  who  have  been  made  hard, 
and  sullen,  and  bitter,  and  paralysed  for  good  work, 
because  they  have  some  heavy  burden  or  some  wound 
that  life  can  never  heal,  to  be  carried  or  to  ache.  Ah, 
brethren,  we  are  often  like  shipwrecked  crews,  of  whom 
some  are  driven  by  the  danger  to  their  knees,  and  some 
are  driven  to  the  spirit-casks.  Take  care  that  you  do 
not  waste  your  sorrows  ;  that  you  do  not  let  the  precious 
gifts  of  disappointment,  pain,  loss,  loneliness,  ill-health, 
or  similar  afflictions  that  come  in  your  daily  life,  mar 
you  instead  of  mending  you.    See  that  they  send  you 


▲  rATHES's   DISOIPLINB.  185 

nearer  to  God,  and  not  that  they  drive  you  farther  from 
Him.  See  that  they  make  you  more  anxious  to  have 
the  durable  riches  and  righteousness  which  no  man 
can  take  from  you,  than  to  grasp  at  what  may  yet 
remain  of  fleeting  earthly  joys. 

So,  brethren,  let  us  try  to  school  ourselves  into  the 
habitual  and  operative  conviction  that  life  is  discipline. 
Let  us  yield  ourselves  to  the  loving  will  of  the  unerring 
Father,  the  perfect  Love.  Let  us  beware  of  getting 
no  good  from  what  is  charged  to  the  brim  with  good. 
And  let  us  see  to  it  that  out  of  the  many  fleeting 
circumstances  of  life  we  gather  and  keep  the  eternal 
fruit  of  being  partakers  of  His  holiness.  May  it  never 
have  to  be  said  of  any  of  us  that  we  wasted  the  mercies 
which  were  judgments  too,  and  found'  no  good  in  the 
things  that  our  tortured  hearts  felt  to  be  also  evils  ; 
lest  God  should  have  to  wail  over  any  of  us,  "  In  vain 
have  I  smitten  your  children  ;  they  have  received  no 
correction  1 " 


AHAB  AND   MICAIAH. 

"  And  Jehoshaphat  said,  Is  there  not  here  a  prophet  of  the  Lord 
besides,  that  we  might  inquire  of  him  7  And  the  king  of  Israel  said 
unto  Jehoshaphat,  There  is  yet  one  man,  Micaiah  the  son  of  Imlah,  by 
whom  we  may  inquire  of  the  Lord  :  but  I  hate  him ;  for  he  doth  not 
prophesy  good  concerning  me,  but  evil." — 1  KiNas  xxil  7,  8. 

AN  ill-omened  alliance  had  been  struck  up  between 
Ahab  of  Israel  and  Jehoshaphat  of  Judah.  The 
latter,  who  would  have  been  much  better  in  Jerusalem, 
had  come  down  to  Samaria  to  join  in  an  assault  on  the 
kingdom  of  Damascus  ;  but,  like  a  great  many  other 
people,  Jehoshaphat  first  made  up  his  mind  without 
asking  God,  and  then  thought  that  it  might  be  well  to 
get  some  kind  of  varnish  of  a  religious  sanction  for  his 
decision.  So  he  proposes  to  his  ally  to  inquire  of  the 
Lord  about  this  matter.  One  would  have  thought  that 
that  should  have  been  done  before,  and  not  after,  the 
determination  was  made.  Ahab  does  not  at  all  see  the 
necessity  for  such  a  thing,  but,  to  please  his  scrupulous 
ally,  he  sends  for  his  priests.  They  came,  four  hundred 
of  them,  and  they  all  played  the  tune,  of  course,  that 
Ahab  called  for.  It  is  not  difficult  to  get  prophets  to 
pat  a  king  on  the  back,  and  tell  him,  "  Do  what  you 
like." 

But  Jehoshaphat  was  not  satisfied  yet.     Perhaps  he 

186 


AHAB    AND    MICAIAH.  187 

thonght  that  Ahab's  clergy  were  not  exactly  God's 
prophets,  but  at  all  events  he  wanted  an  independent 
opinion  ;  and  so  he  asks  if  there  is  not  in  all  Samaria 
a  man  that  can  be  trusted  to  speak  out.  He  gets  for 
answer  the  name  of  this  "  Micaiah  the  son  of  Imlah." 
Ahab  had  had  experience  of  him,  and  knew  his  man  ; 
and  the  very  name  leads  him  to  an  explosion  of  passion, 
which,  like  other  explosions,  lays  bare  some  very  ugly 
depths.  "  I  hate  him  ;  for  he  doth  not  prophesy  good 
concerning  me,  but  evil." 

That  is  a  curious  mood,  is  it  not  ?  that  a  man  should 
know  another  to  be  a  messenger  of  God,  and  therefore 
know  that  his  words  are  true,  and  that  if  he  asked  his 
coansel  he  would  be  forbidden  to  do  the  thing  that  he 
is  dead  set  on  doing,  and  would  be  warned  that  to  do 
it  was  destruction  ;  and  so,  like  a  fool,  he  will  not 
ask  the  counsel,  and  never  dreams  of  dropping  the 
purpose,  but  simply  bursts  out  in  a  passion  of  puerile 
rage  against  the  counsellor,  and  will  have  none  of  his 
reproofs.  Very  curious  !  But  there  are  a  great  many 
of  us  that  have  something  of  the  same  mood  in  us, 
though  we  do  not  speak  it  out  as  plainly  as  Ahab  did. 
It  lurks  more  or  less  in  us  all  ;  and,  dear  friends,  it 
largely  determines  the  attitude  that  some  of  you  take 
to  Christianity  and  to  Christ.  So  I  wish  to  say  a  word 
or  two  about  it. 

I.  My  text  suggests  the  inevitable  opposition  between 
a  message  from  God  and  man's  evil. 

No  doubt,  God  is  love  ;  and  just  because  He  is,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  that  what  comes  from  Him,  and  is 
the  reflex  and  cast,  so  to  speak,  of  His  character,  should 
be  in  stern  and  continual  antagonism  to  that  evil  which 


188  AHAB   AND    MICAIAH. 

is  the  worst  foe  of  men,  and  is  sure  to  lead  to  their 
death.  It  is  becanse  God  is  love,  that  "  to  the  froward 
He  shows  Himself  froward,"  and  opposes  that  which, 
unopposed  and  yielded  to,  will  ruin  the  man  that  does 
it.  So  this  is  one  of  the  characteristic  marks  of  all 
true  messages  from  God,  that  men  who  will  not  part 
with  their  evil  call  them  "  stern,"  "  rigid,"  "  gloomy," 
"  narrow."  Yes,  of  course,  because  God  must  look  upon 
godless  lives  with  disapprobation,  and  must  desire  by 
all  means  to  draw  men  away  from  that  which  is  draw- 
ing them  Siwaj  Jrom  Him  and  to  their  death. 

Now,  I  suppose  I  need  not  spend  time  in  enumerating 
or  describing  the  points  in  the  attitude  of  Christianity 
towards  the  solemn  fact  of  human  sin,  which  correspond 
to  Ahab's  complaint  that  the  prophet  spake  always 
"  not  good  concerning  him,  but  evil."  The  "  Gospel "  of 
Jesus  Christ  proves  its  name  to  be  true,  and  that  it  is 
"  good  news,"  not  only  by  its  graciousness,  its  promises, 
its  offers,  and  the  rich  blessings  of  eternal  life  with 
which  its  hands  are  full,  but  by  its  severity,  as  men  call 
it.  One  characteristic  of  the  Gospel  is  the  altogether 
unique  place  which  the  fact  of  sin  fills  in  it.  There  is 
no  other  religion  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that  has  so 
grasped  and  made  prominent  this  thought :  "  All  have 
sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God."  There  is 
none  that  has  painted  human  nature  as  it  is  in  such 
dark  colours,  because  there  is  none  that  knows  itself 
to  be  able  to  change  human  nature  into  such  radiance 
of  glory  and  purity.  The  Gospel  has,  if  I  might  so 
say,  on  its  palette  a  far  greater  range  of  pigments  than 
any  other  system.  Its  blacks  are  blacker  ;  its  whites 
are  whiter ;  its  golds  are  more  lustrous  than  those  of 


AHAB   AND   MICAIAH.  189 

other  painters  of  human  nature  as  it  is  and  as  it  may 
become.  It  is  a  mark  of  its  Divine  origin  that  it 
unfalteringly  looks  facts  in  the  face,  and  will  not  say 
smooth  things  about  men  as  they  are. 

Side  by  side  with  that  characteristic  of  the  dark  picture 
which  it  draws  of  us,  as  we  are  of  ourselves,  is  its 
unhesitating  restraint  or  condemnation  of  deep-seated 
desires  and  tendencies.  It  does  not  come  to  men  with 
the  smooth  words  on  its  lips,  "  Do  as  thou  wilt."  It 
does  not  seek  for  favour  by  relaxing  bonds,  but  it  rigidly 
builds  up  a  wall  on  either  side  of  a  narrow  path,  and 
says,  "  Walk  within  these  limits  and  thou  art  safe.  Go 
beyond  them  a  hair's-breadth,  and  thou  perishest."  It 
may  suit  Ahab's  prophets  to  fling  the  reins  on  the  neck 
of  human  nature  ;  God's  prophet  says,  "  Thou  shalt  not." 
That  is  another  of  the  tests  of  Divine  origin,  that  there 
shall  be  no  base  compliance  with  inclinations,  but  rigid 
condemnation  of  many  of  our  deep  desires. 

Side  by  side  with  these  two,  there  is  a  third  charac- 
teristic that  the  Word,  which  is  the  outcome  and 
expression  of  the  Divine  love,  is  distinguished  by  its 
plain  and  stern  declarations  of  the  bitter  consequences  of 
evil-doing.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  these,  brethren. 
They  seem  to  me  to  be  far  too  solemn  to  be  spoken  of  by 
a  man  to  men  in  other  words  than  Scripture's.  But  I 
beseech  you  to  remember  that  this,  too,  is  the  charac- 
teristic of  Christ's  message.  So  a  man  may  say,  when 
he  thinks  of  the  dark  and  solemn  things  that  the  Old 
Testament  partially,  and  the  New  Testament  more 
clearly,  utter  as  to  the  death  which  is  the  outcome 
of  sin,  that  these  are  indeed  the  very  voice  of  infinite 
love   pleading   with  us   all.     Brother,  do  not   so  mis- 


190  AHAB  AND   MICAIAH. 

apprehend  facts  as  to  think  that  the  restraints  and 
threatenings  and  dark  pictures  which  Christ  and  His 
servants  have  drawn  are  anything  but  the  utterance  of 
the  purest  affection. 

II.  Now,  secondly,  let  me  ask  you  to  look  for  a 
moment  at  the  strange  dislike  which  this  attitude  of 
Christianity  kindles. 

I  have  said  that  Ahab's  mental  condition  was  a  very 
odd  one.  Strange  as  it  is,  it  is,  as  I  have  already 
remarked,  in  some  degree  a  very  frequent  one.  There 
are  in  us  all,  as  we  see  in  many  regions  of  life,  the 
beginnings  of  the  same  kind  of  feeling.  Here,  for 
example,  is  a  course  that  I  am  quite  sure,  if  I  pursue 
it,  will  land  me  in  evil.  Does  the  drunkard  take  a 
glass  the  less,  because  he  knows  that  if  he  goes  on 
he  will  have  a  drunkard's  liver  and  die  a  miserable 
death  ?  Does  the  gambler  ever  take  away  his  hand 
from  the  pack  of  cards  or  the  dice-box,  because  he  knows 
that  play  means,  in  the  long  run,  poverty  and  disgrace  ? 
When  a  man  sets  his  will  upon  a  certain  course,  he  is 
like  a  bull  that  has  started  in  its  rage.  Down  goes  the 
head,  and,  with  eyes  shut,  he  will  charge  a  stone  wall 
or  an  iron  door,  though  he  knows  it  will  smash  his 
skull.  Men  are  very  foolish  animals  ;  and  there  is  no 
greater  mark  of  their  folly  than  the  conspicuous  and 
oft-repeated  fact  that  the  clearest  vision  of  the  con- 
sequences of  a  course  of  conduct  is  powerless  to  turn 
a  man  from  it,  when  once  his  passions,  or  his  will,  or, 
worse  still,  his  weakness,  or,  worst  of  all,  his  habits, 
have  bound  him  to  it. 

Take  another  illustration.  Do  we  not  all  know  that 
honest  friends   have  sometimes   fallen  out  of   favour, 


AHAB  AND  MIOAIAH.  191 

perhaps  with  ourselves,  because  they  have  persistently 
kept  telling  us  what  our  consciences  and  common-sense 
knew  to  be  true,  that  if  we  go  on  by  that  road  we 
shall  be  suffocated  in  a  bog  ?  A  man  makes  up  his 
mind  to  a  course  of  conduct.  He  has  a  shrewd  sus- 
picion that  his  honest  friend  will  condemn,  and  that 
the  condemnation  will  be  right.  What  does  he  do, 
therefore  ?  He  never  tells  his  friend,  and  if  by  chance 
that  friend  should  say  what  was  expected  of  him,  he  gets 
angry  with  his  adviser  and  goes  his  road.  I  suppose 
we  all  know  what  it  is  to  treat  our  consciences  in  the 
style  in  which  Ahab  treated  Micaiah.  We  do  not 
listen  to  them  because  we  know  what  they  will  say 
before  they  have  said  it  ;  and  we  call  ourselves  sensible 
people  !  Martin  Luther  once  said  :  "  It  is  neither  safe 
nor  wise  to  do  anything  against  conscience."  But  Ahab 
put  Micaiah  in  prison  ;  and  we  shut  up  our  consciences 
in  a  dungeon,  and  put  a  gag  in  their  mouths,  and  a 
muffler  over  the  gag,  that  we  may  hear  them  say  no 
word,  because  we  know  that  what  we  are  doing,  and  we 
are  doggedly  determined  to  do,  is  wrong. 

But  the  saddest  illustration  of  this  infatuation  is  to 
be  found  in  the  attitude  that  many  men  take  in  regard 
to  Christianity.  There  is  a  great  craving  to-day,  more 
perhaps  than  there  has  been  in  some  other  periods  of 
the  world's  history,  for  a  religion  which  shall  adorn, 
but  shall  not  restrain  ;  for  a  religion  which  shall  be 
toothless,  and  have  no  bite  in  it  ;  for  a  religion  that 
shall  sanction  anything  that  it  pleases  our  sovereign 
mightiness  to  want  to  do.  We  should  all  like  to  have 
God's  sanction  for  our  actions.  But  there  are  a  great 
many  of  us  that  will  not  take  the  only  way  to  secure 


192  AHAB   AND    MICAIAH. 

that — viz.,  to  do  the  actions  which  He  commands,  and 
to  abstain  from  those  which  He  forbids.  Popular 
Christianity  is  a  very  easy-fitting  garment ;  it  is  like 
an  old  shoe,  that  you  can  slip  off  and  on  without  any 
difficulty.  But  a  religion  which  does  not  put  up  a  strong 
barrier  between  you  and  many  of  yonr  inclinations  is  not 
worth  anything.  The  mark  of  a  message  from  God  is 
that  it  restrains  and  coerces  and  forbids  and  commands. 
And  some  of  you  do  not  like  it  because  it  does. 

There  is  a  great  tendency  in  this  day  to  cut  out  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  all  the  pages  that  say 
things  like  this,  "  The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die  "  ; 
or  things  like  this,  "  This  is  the  condemnation,  that 
light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  love  darkness 
rather  than  light "  ;  or  things  like  this,  '^  Then  shall 
the  wicked  go  away  into  outer  darkness."  Brethren, 
men  being  what  they  are,  and  God  being  what  He  is, 
there  can  be  no  Divine  message  without  a  side  of  what 
the  world  calls  threatening,  or  what  Ahab  called 
"prophesying  evil."  I  beseech  you,  do  not  be  carried 
away  by  the  modern  talk  about  Christianity  being 
gloomy  and  dark,  or  fancy  that  it  is  a  blot  and  an 
excrescence  upon  the  pure  religion  of  the  Man  of 
Nazareth,  when  we  speak  of  the  death  that  follows 
sin,  and  of  the  darkness  into  which  unbelief  carries 
a  man. 

III.  Once  more,  let  me  say  a  word  about  the  intense 
folly  of  such  an  attitude. 

Ahab  hated  Micaiah.  Why  ?  Because  Micaiah  told 
him  what  would  come  to  him  as  the  fruit  of  his  own 
actions.  That  was  foolish.  It  is  no  less  foolish  for 
people  to  take  up  a  position   of  dislike,  and  to  turn 


AHAB   AND   MICAIAH.  193 

away  from  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  because  it  speaks 
in  like  manner.  I  said  that  men  are  very  foolish  animals  ; 
there  is  surely  nothing  in  all  the  annals  of  human 
stupidity  more  stupid  than  to  be  angry  with  the  word 
that  tells  you  the  truth  about  what  you  are  bringing 
down  upon  your  heads.  It  is  absurd,  because  Micaiah 
did  not  make  the  evil,  but  Ahab  made  it  ;  and  Micaiah's 
business  was  only  to  tell  him  what  he  was  doing.  It 
is  absurd,  because  the  only  question  to  be  asked  is, 
Are  the  warnings  true  ?  are  the  threatenings  representa- 
tions of  what  really  will  come?  are  the  prohibitions 
reasonable  ?  And  it  is  absurd,  because,  if  these  things 
are  so — if  it  is  true  that  the  soul  that  sinneth  dies, 
and  will  die  ;  if  it  is  true  that  you,  who  have  heard 
the  name  and  the  salvation  of  Jesus  Christ  over  and 
over  again,  and  have  turned  away  from  it,  will,  if  you 
continue  in  that  negligence  and  unbelief,  reap  bitter 
fruits  here  and  hereafter  therefrom — if  these  things  are 
true,  surely  the  man  that  tells  you,  and  the  Gospel  that 
tells  you,  deserve  better  treatment  than  Ahab's  petulant 
hatred  or  your  stolid  indifference  and  neglect. 

Would  you  think  it  wise  for  a  sea-captain  to  try  to 
take  the  clapper  out  of  the  bell  that  floats  and  tolls 
above  a  shoal  on  which  his  ship  will  be  wrecked,  if  it 
strikes?  Would  it  be  wise  to  put  out  the  lighthouse 
lamps,  and  then  think  that  you  had  abolished  the  reef  ? 
Does  the  signalman  with  his  red  flag  make  the  danger 
that  he  warns  of,  and  is  it  not  like  a  baby  to  hate  and  to 
neglect  the  message  that  comes  to  you  and  says,  "  Turn 
ye,  turn  ye,  why  will  ye  die  ?  " 

lY.  So,  lastly,  I  notice  the  end  of  this  foolish  attitude. 

Ahab  was  told  in  plain  words  by  Micaiah,  before  the 

13 


194  ▲HAB  AND  MIOAIAH. 

interview  closed,  that  he  would  never  come  back  again  in 
peace.  He  ordered  the  bold  prophet  into  prison,  and 
rode  away  gaily,  no  doubt,  to  his  campaign.  Weak  men 
are  very  often  obstinate,  because  they  are  not  strong 
enough  to  rise  to  the  height  of  changing  a  purpose  when 
reason  urges.  This  weak  man  was  always  obstinate  in 
the  wrong  place,  as  so  many  of  us  are.  So  away  he 
went,  down  from  Samaria,  across  the  plain,  down  to  the 
fords  of  the  Jordan.  But  wh«n  he  had  crossed  to  the 
other  side,  and  was  coming  near  his  objective  point, 
the  memories  of  Micaiah  in  prison  at  Samaria  began  to 
sit  heavy  on  his  soul. 

So  he  tried  to  dodge  Divine  judgment,  and  got  up  an 
ingenious  scheme  by  which  his  ally  was  to  go  into  the 
field  in  royal  pomp,  and  he  to  slip  into  it  disguised.  A 
great  many  of  us  try  to  dodge  God,  and  it  does  not 
answer.  The  man  who  "  drew  the  bow  at  a  venture  " 
had  his  hand  guided  by  a  higher  hand.  Ahab  was 
plated  all  over  with  iron  and  brass,  but  there  is  always 
a  crevice  through  which  God's  arrow  can  find  its  way  ; 
and,  where  God's  arrow  finds  its  way,  it  kills.  When 
the  night  fell  he  was  lying  dead  on  his  chariot  floor,  and 
the  host  was  scattered,  and  Micaiah,  the  prisoner,  was 
avenged  ;  and  his  word  took  hold  on  the  despiser  of  it. 

So  it  always  will  be.  So  it  will  be  with  us,  dear 
brethren,  if  we  do  not  take  heed  to  our  ways  and  listen 
to  the  word  which  may  be  bitter  in  the  mouth,  but, 
taken,  turns  sweet  as  honey.  Nailing  the  index  of  the 
barometer  to  "  set  fair "  will  not  keep  oflf  the  thunder- 
storm, and  no  negligence  or  dislike  of  Divine  threatenings 
will  arrest  the  slow,  solemn  march,  inevitable  as  destiny, 
of  the  consequence  of  our  doings.     Things  will  be  a-s 


AHAB   AND    MIOAIAH.  195 

they  will  be ;  believed  or  unbelieved,  the  avalanche 
will  come. 

Dear  brethren,  there  is  one  way  to  get  Micaiah  on 
our  side.  Listen  to  him,  and  then  he  will  speak  good 
to  you,  and  not  what  you  foolishly  call  evil.  Let  God's 
word  convince  you  of  sin.  Let  it  bring  you  to  the  Cross 
for  pardon.  Jesus  Christ  addresses  each  of  us  in  the 
Apostle's  words  :  "  Am  I  therefore  become  your  enemy 
because  I  tell  you  the  truth  ?  "  The  sternest  "  threaten- 
ings  "  in  the  Bible  come  from  the  lips  of  that  infinite 
Love.  K  you  will  listen  to  Him,  if  you  will  yield 
yourselves  to  Him,  if  you  will  take  Him  for  your 
Saviour  and  your  Lord,  if  you  will  cast  your  confidence 
and  anchor  your  love  upon  Him,  if  you  will  let  Him 
restrain  you,  if  you  will  consult  Him  about  what  He 
would  have  you  do,  if  you  will  accept  His  prohibitions 
as  well  as  His  permissions,  then  His  word  and  His  act 
to  you,  here  and  hereafter,  will  be  only  good  and  not 
evil,  all  the  days  of  your  life. 

Remember  Ahab  lying  dead  on  the  floor  of  his 
chariot  in  a  pool  of  his  own  blood,  and  bethink 
yourselves  of  what  despising  the  threatenings,  and 
turning  away  from  the  rebukes  and  prohibitions  of  the 
Divine  word  come  to.  These  threatenings  are  spoken 
that  they  may  never  need  to  be  put  in  effect ;  if  you 
give  heed  to  them  they  will  never  be  put  in  effect  in 
regard  to  you.  If  you  neglect  them  and  "  will  none  of" 
God's  "reproof,"  they  will  come  down  on  you  like  a 
mighty  rock  loosed  from  the  mountain,  and  will  grind 
you  to  powder. 


THE  ROYAL  JUBILEE. 

"  He  that  roleth  over  men  must  be  jast^  ruling  in  the  fear  of  God. 
And  he  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  morning,  when  the  sun  riseth,  even 
a  morning  without  clouds;  as  the  tender  grass  springing  out  of  the 
earth,  by  clear  shining  after  rain." — 2  Sam.  xxiii.  3,  4. 

ONE  of  the  Psalms  ascribed  to  David  sounds  like  the 
resolves  of  a  new  monarch  on  his  accession.  Id 
it  the  Psalmist  draws  the  ideal  of  a  king,  and  says  such 
things  as,  "I  will  behave  myself  wisely,  in  a  perfect 
way.  I  wUl  set  no  wicked  thing  before  mine  eyes.  I 
hate  the  work  of  them  that  turn  aside.  Mine  eyes  shall 
be  upon  the  faithful  of  the  land,  that  they  may  dwell 
with  me."  That  psalm  we  may  regard  as  the  first 
words  of  the  king,  when,  after  long,  weary  years,  the 
promise  of  Samuel's  anointing  was  fulfilled,  and  he 
sat  on  the  throne. 

My  text  comes  from  what  purports  to  be  the  last 
words  of  the  same  king.  He  looks  back,  and  again  the 
ideal  of  a  monarch  rises  before  him.  The  psalm,  for  it 
is  a  psalm,  though  it  is  not  in  the  Psalter,  is  compressed 
to  the  verge  of  obscurity ;  and  there  may  be  many 
questions  raised  about  its  translation  and  its  bearing. 

•  Preached  on  the  occasion  of  Her  Majesty's  "  Diamond  Jubilee." 

196 


THE   ROYAL  JUBILEE.  197 

These  do  not  need  to  occupy  us  now,  but  the  words 
which  I  have  selected  for  my  text,  may,  perhaps,  best 
be  represented  to  an  English  reader  in  some  such 
sentence  as  this — ''  If  (or,  when)  one  rules  over  men 
justly,  ruling  in  the  fear  of  God,  then  it  shall  be  as 
the  light  of  the  morning  when  the  sun  riseth,  even 
a  morning  without  clouds."  With  such  a  monarch  all 
the  interests  of  his  people  will  prosper.  His  reign  will 
be  like  the  radiant  dawn  of  a  cloudless  day,  and  his 
land  like  the  spring  pastures,  when  the  fresh,  green  grass 
is  wooed  out  of  the  baked  earth  by  the  combined 
influence  of  rain  and  sunshine.  David's  little  kingdom 
was  surrounded  by  giant  empires,  in  which  brute  force, 
wielded  by  despotic  will,  ground  men  down,  or  squandered 
their  lives  recklessly.  But  the  King  of  Israel  had  learnt, 
partly  by  the  experience  of  his  own  reign,  and  partly 
by  Divine  inspiration,  that  such  rulers  were  not  true 
types  of  a  monarch  after  God's  own  heart.  This  ideal 
king  is  neither  a  warrior  nor  a  despot.  Two  qualities 
mark  him.  Justice  and  Godliness.  Pharaoh,  and  his 
like,  oppressors,  were  as  the  lightning  which  blasts  and 
scorches.  The  true  king  was  to  be  as  the  sunshine  that 
vitalises  and  gladdens.  "  He  shall  come  down  like  rain 
upon  the  mown  grass,  and  as  showers  that  water  the 
earth." 

We  do  not  need  to  ask  the  question  here,  though 
it  might  be  very  relevant  on  another  occasion,  whether 
this  portraiture  is  a  mere  ideal,  floating  in  vacuo,  or 
whether  it  is  a  direct  prophecy  of  that  expected  Messianic 
king  who  was  to  realise  the  Divine  ideal  of  sovereignty. 
At  all  events  we  know  that,  in  its  highest  and  deepest 
significance,  the    picture    of   my   text  has    lived,   and 


198  THB   ROYAL   JUBILEE. 

breathed  human  breath,  in  Jesus  Christ,  who,  both  in 
His  character  and  in  His  influence  on  the  world, 
fulfilled  the  ideal  that  floated  before  the  eyes  of  the 
aged  king. 

I  do  not  need  to  follow  the  course  of  thought  in 
this  psalm  any  farther.  You  will  have  anticipated  my 
motive  for  selecting  this  text  now.  It  seems  to  me 
to  gather  up,  in  vivid  and  picturesque  form,  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  which  to-day  are  thrilling  through  an 
empire,  to  which  the  most  extended  dominion  of  these 
warrior  kings  of  old  was  but  a  speck.  On  such  an  occa- 
sion as  this  I  need  not  make  any  apology,  I  am  sure,  for 
diverging  from  the  ordinary  topics  of  pulpit  address, 
and  associating  ourselves  with  the  many  millions  who 
to-day  are  giving  thanks  for  Queen  Victoria. 

My  text  suggests  two  lines  along  which  the  course 
of  our  thoughts  may  run.  The  one  is  the  personal 
character  of  this  ideal  monarch  ;  the  other  is  its  effects 
on  his  subjects. 

I.  Now,  with  regard  to  the  former,  the  pulpit  is,  in 
my  judgment,  not  the  place  either  for  the  discussion  of 
current  events  or  the  pronouncing  of  personal  eulogiums. 
But  I  shall  not  be  wandering  beyond  my  legitimate 
province,  if  I  venture  to  try  to  gather  into  a  few  words 
the  reasons,  in  the  character  and  public  life  of  our  Queen, 
for  the  thankfulness  of  this  day.  Our  text  brings  out, 
as  I  have  said,  two  great  qualities  as  those  on  which 
a  throne  is  to  be  established.  Justice  and  Godliness. 
Now,  the  ancient  type  of  monarch  was  the  fountain  of 
justice,  in  a  very  direct  sense  ;  inasmuch  as  it  was  his 
office,  not  only  to  pronounce  sentence  on  criminals,  but 
to^ve  decisions  on  disputed  questions  of  right.     These 


THE   KOYAL  JUBILEE.  199 

functions  have  long  ceased  to  be  exercised  by  our 
monarchs,  but  there  is  still  room  for  both  of  those 
qualities — the  Justice  which  holds  an  even  balance 
between  parties  and  strifes,  the  righteousness  which  has 
supreme  regard  to  the  primary  duties  that  press  alike 
upon  prince  and  pauper,  and  the  godliness  which,  as  I 
believe,  is  the  root  from  which  all  righteousness,  as 
between  man  and  man,  and  as  between  prince  and 
subject,  must  ever  flow.  Morality  is  the  garb  of  re- 
ligion ;  religion  is  the  root  of  morality.  He,  and  only 
he,  will  hold  an  even  balance  and  discharge  his  obliga- 
tions to  man,  whose  life  is  rooted  in,  and  his  acts  under 
the  continual  influence  of,  the  fear  of  God,  which  has 
in  it  no  torment,  but  is  the  parent  of  all  things  good. 
We  shall  not  be  flatterers  if  we  thankfully  recognise 
in  our  Sovereign  Lady  the  presence  of  both  these 
qualities.  I  have  spoken  of  the  first  inaugural  words 
of  the  King  of  Israel,  and  the  resolutions  that  he  made. 
It  is  recorded  that  when,  to  the  child  of  eleven  years  of 
age,  the  annoancement  was  made  that  she  stood  near 
in  the  line  of  succession  to  the  throne,  the  tremulous 
young  lips  answered,  "  It  is  a  great  responsibility  ;  but 
I  will  be  good."  And  all  round  the  world  to-day  her 
subjects  attest  that  the  aged  monarch  has  kept  the  little 
maiden's  vow.  Contrast  that  life  with  the  lives  of  the 
other  women  that  have  sat  on  the  throne  of  England. 
Think  of  the  brilliant  Queen,  whose  glories  our  greatest 
poets  were  not  ashamed  to  sing,  with  the  Tudor  master- 
fulness in  her,  and  not  a  little  of  the  Tudor  grossness 
and  passion,  and  of  the  blots  that  stained  her  glories. 
Think  of  her  sister,  the  morbidly  melancholy  tool  of 
priests,  who  goes  down  to  the  ages  branded  with  an 


200  THB   ROYAL   JUBILEE. 

epithet  only  too  sadly  earned.  Think  of  another  woman 
that  ruled  over  England  in  name,  the  weak  instrument 
of  base  intrigues.  And  then  turn  to  this  life  which 
we  are  looking  upon  to-day.  Think  of  the  nameless 
scandals,  the  hideous  immorality  of  the  reigns  that 
preceded  hers,  and  you  will  not  wonder  that  every  decent 
man  and  every  modest  woman  was  thankful  that,  with 
the  young  girl,  there  came  a  breath  of  purer  air  into 
the  foul  atmosphere.  I  am  old  enough  to  remember 
hearing,  as  a  boy,  the  talk  of  my  elders  as  to  the  proba- 
bilities of  insurrection  if,  instead  of  our  Queen,  there  had 
come  to  the  throne  the  brother  of  her  two  predecessors. 
The  hopes  of  those  early  days  have  been  more  than 
fulfilled. 

It  is  not  for  ns  to  determine  the  religious  character 
of  others,  and  that  is  too  sacred  a  region  for  us  to  enter, 
but  this  we  may  say  that  in  all  these  sixty  years  of 
diversified  trial,  there  has  been  no  act  known  to  ns 
outsiders  inconsistent  with  the  highest  motive,  the  fear 
of  the  Lord ;  and  some  of  us  who  have  worshipped  in 
the  humble  Highland  church  where  she  has  bowed  have 
felt  that  on  the  throne  of  England  sat  a  Christian. 

Nor  need  we  forget  how,  from  that  root  of  fear  of 
God,  there  has  come  that  wondrous  patience  and  faith- 
fulness to  duty,  the  form  of  "  Justice  "  which  is  possible 
for  a  constitutional  monarch.  We  have  little  notion 
of  how  pressing  and  numerous  and  continual  the  Royal 
duties  must  necessarily  be.  They  have  been  discharged, 
even  when  the  blow  that  struck  all  sunshine  out  of  life 
left  an  irrepressible  shrinking  from  pageantry  and  pomp. 
Joys  come  ;  joys  go.  Duties  abide,  and  they  have  been 
done. 


THE   ROYAL   JUBILEE.  201 

Nor  can  we  forget,  either,  how  the  very  difficult 
position  of  a  constitutional  monarch,  with  the  semblance 
of  power  and  the  reality  of  narrow  restrictions,  has 
been  discharged.  Our  Sovereign  has  never  set  herself 
against  the  will  of  the  people,  expressed  by  its  legiti- 
mate representatives,  even  when  that  will  may  have 
imposed  upon  her  the  sanction  of  changes  which  she 
did  not  approve.  And  that  is  much  to  say.  We  have 
seen  young  despots  whose  self-will  has  threatened  to 
wreck  a  nation's  prosperity. 

Nor  can  we  forget  how  all  the  immense  influence  of 
position  and  personality  have  been  thrown  on  the  side 
of  purity  and  righteousness.  Even  we  outsiders  know 
how,  more  than  once  or  twice,  she  has  steadfastly  set 
her  face  against  the  admission  to  her  presence  of  men 
and  women  of  evil  repute,  and  has  in  effect  repeated 
David's  proclamation  against  vice  and  immorality  at 
his  accession  :  "  He  that  worketh  wickedness  shall  not 
dwell  within  my  house." 

Nor  must  we  forget,  either,  the  simplicity,  the  beauty, 
the  tenderness  of  the  wedded  and  family  life,  the  love 
of  rural  quiet,  and  of  wholesome  communion  with  Nature, 
and  the  eagerness  to  take  her  people  into  her  confidence, 
as  set  forth  in  the  book  which,  whatever  its  literary 
merits,  speaks  of  her  earnest  appreciation  of  Nature 
and  her  wish  for  the  sympathy  of  her  subjects. 

Then  came  the  bolt  from  the  blue,  that  sudden  crash 
that  wrecked  the  happiness  of  a  life.  Many  of  us,  I 
have  no  doubt,  remember  that  dreary  December  Sunday 
morning  when,  while  the  nation  was  standing  in  expec- 
tation of  another  calamity  from  across  the  Atlantic, 
til  ere  flashed  through  the  land  the  news  of  the  Prince's 


202  THE   ROYAL   JUBILEE. 

death  ;  thrilling  all  hearts,  and  bringing  all  nearer  to 
her,  the  lonely  widow,  than  they  had  ever  been  in  her 
days  of  radiant  happiness.  How  pathetically,  silently, 
nobly,  devoutly,  that  sorrow  has  been  borne,  it  is  not 
for  us  to  speak.  She  has  become  one  of  the  great 
company  of  sad  and  lonely  hearts,  and  in  her  sadness 
has  shown  an  eager  desire  to  send  messages  of  sympathy 
to  all  whom  she  could  reach,  who  were  in  like  darkness 
and  sorrow. 

Brethren,  I  have  ventured  to  diverge  so  far  from  the 
ordinary  run  of  pulpit  ministrations  because  I  feel  that 
to-day  we  all  of  us,  whatever  may  be  our  political  or 
ecclesiastical  relationships  and  proclivities,  are  one  in 
thanking  God  for  the  monarch  whose  life  has  been 
without  a  stain,  and  her  reign  without  a  blot. 

II.  Now  let  me  say  a  word  as  to  the  other  line  of 
thought  which  my  text  suggests,  the  effect  of  such  a 
reign  on  the  condition  of  the  subject. 

Now,  of  course,  in  the  narrowly  limited  domain  of 
that  strange  creation,  a  constitutional  monarchy,  there 
is  far  less  opportunity  for  the  Sovereign's  direct  influence 
on  the  Subject,  than  there  was  in  the  ancient  kingdoms 
of  which  David  was  thinking  in  his  psalm.  The 
marvellous  progress  of  England  during  these  sixty  years 
is  due,  not  to  our  Sovereign,  but  to  a  multitude  of 
strenuous  workers  and  earnest  thinkers  in  a  hundred 
different  departments,  as  well  as  to  the  evolution  of  the 
gifts  that  come  down  to  us  from  our  ancient  inheritance 
of  freedom.  But  we  shall  much  mistake  if,  for  that 
reason,  we  set  aside  the  monarch's  character  and  in- 
fluence as  of  no  account  in  the  progress. 

A  supposition,  which  is  a  violent  one,  may  be  made 


THE  ROYAL  JUBILBB.  203 

which  will  set  this  matter  in  clearer  light.  Suppose 
that  during  these  sixty  years  we  had  had  kings  on  the 
throne  of  England  like  some  of  the  kings  we  have  had. 
The  sentiment  of  loyalty  now  is  not  of  such  a  character 
as  that  it  will  survive  a  vicious  sovereign.  If  we  had 
had  such  a  monarch  as  I  have  hinted  at,  the  loyalty 
of  the  good  would  for  all  these  years  have  been  suffering 
a  severe  strain,  and  the  forces  that  make  for  evil  would 
have  been  disastrously  strengthened.  Dangers  escaped 
are  unnoticed,  but  one  twelvemonth  of  the  reign  of  a 
profligate  would  shake  the  foundations  of  the  monarchy, 
and  would  open  the  flood  gates  of  vice  ;  and  we  should 
then  know  how  much  the  nation  owed  to  the  Queen 
whose  life  was  pure,  and  who  cast  all  her  influence  on 
the  side  of  "  things  that  are  lovely  and  of  good  report." 

Take  another  supposition.  Suppose  that  during  these 
years  of  wonderful  transition,  when  the  whole  aspect 
of  English  politics  and  society  has  been  transformed, 
we  had  had  a  king  like  George  III.,  who  set  his  opinion 
against  the  nation's  will  constitutionally  expressed. 
Then  no  man  knows  with  what  storm  and  tumult,  with 
what  strife  and  injury,  the  inevitable  transition  would 
have  been  effected.  Be  sure  of  this,  that  the  wise 
self-eff'acement  of  our  Sovereign  during  these  critical 
years  of  change  is  largely  the  reason  why  they  have 
been  years  ol  peace,  in  which  the  new  has  mingled  itself 
with  the  old  without  revolution  or  disturbance.  It  is 
due  to  her  in  a  very  large  degree  that 

"Freedom  broadens  slowly  down 
From  precedent  to  precedent." 

I  need  not  dilate  on  the  changed  England  that  she 


-^04  THE   ROYAL   JUBILEE. 

looks  out  upon  and  rules  tO-day.  I  need  not  speak — 
there  will  be  many  voices  to  do  that,  in  not  altogether 
agreeable  notes,  for  there  will  be  a  dash  of  too  much 
self-complacency  in  them — about  progress  in  material 
wealth,  colonial  expansion,  the  increase  of  education, 
the  gentler  manners,  the  new  life  that  has  been  breathed 
over  art  and  literature,  the  achievements  in  science  and 
philosophy,  the  drawing  together  of  classes,  the  bridging 
over  of  the  great  gulf  between  rich  and  poor  by  some  in- 
cipient and  tentative  attempts  at  sympathy  and  brother- 
hood. 

Nor  need  I  dwell  upon  the  ecclesiastical  signs  of  the 
times,  in  which,  mingled  as  they  are,  there  is  at  least 
this  one  great  good,  that  never  since  the  early  days 
have  so  large  a  proportion  of  Christian  men  been 
"  seeking  after  the  things  that  make  for  peace,"  and 
realising  the  oneness  of  all  believers  who  hold  the  Head. 

All  this  review  falls  more  properly  into  other  hands 
than  mine.  Only  I  would  put  in  a  caution — do  not  let 
us  mingle  self-conceit  with  our  congratulations  ;  and, 
above  all,  do  not  let  us  "rest  and  be  thankful."  There 
is  much  to  be  done  yet.  Listening  ears  can  catch  on 
every  side  vague  sounds  that  tell  of  unrest  and  of  the 
stirrings  into  wakefulness  of 

"The  spirit  of  the  years  to  come, 
Yearning  to  mix  itself  with  lifel" 

I  seem  to  hear  all  around  me  the  rushing  in  the  dark 
of  a  mighty  current  that  is  bearing  down  upon  us. 
Great  social  questions  are  rapidly  coming  to  the  front — 
the  questions  of  distribution  of  wealth,  abolition  of 
privilege,  the  relations  of  labour  and  capital,  and  many 


THE   EOYAL  JUBILEE.  205 

otliers  are  clamant  to  be  dealt  with  at  least,  if  not  solved. 
There  is  much  to  be  done  before  Jesus  Christ  is  throned 
as  King  of  England.  War  has  to  be  frowned  down  j  the 
brotherhood  of  man  has  to  be  realised,  temperance  has 
to  be  much  more  largely  practised  than  it  is. 

1  need  not  go  over  the  catalogue  of  desiderata,  of 
agenda,  things  that  have  to  be  done — in  the  near  future. 
Only  this  I  would  say — Christian  men  and  women  are 
the  last  people  who  should  be  ready  to  "  rest  and  be 
thankful,"  for  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  that  we  pro- 
fess, which  have  never  been  applied  to  the  life  of  nations 
as  they  ought  to  be,  will  solve  the  questions  which  make 
the  despair  of  so  many  in  this  generation.  We  shall 
best  express  our  thankfulness  for  these  past  sixty  years 
by  each  of  us  taking  our  part  in  the  great  movement 
which,  in  the  inevitable  drift  of  things  to  democracy,  is 
going  to  "  cast  the  kingdom  old  into  another  mould,"  and 
which  will,  I  pray,  make  our  people  more  of  what  John 
Milton  long  ago  called  them,  "  God's  Englishmen."  We 
have  taught  the  nations  many  things.  This  land  is 
called  the  mother  of  Parliaments.     It  is 

"The  land  where,  girt  with  friends  or  foea 
A  man  may  say  the  thing  he  will." 

It  has  taught  the  nations  a  tempered  freedom,  and 
that  a  monarchy  may  be  a  true  republic.  May  we  rise 
to  the  height  of  our  privileges  and  responsibilities,  and 
teach  our  subject  peoples,  not  only  mechanics,  science, 
law,  free  trade,  but  a  loftier  morality,  and  the  name  of 
Him  by  whom  kings  reign  and  princes  decree  justice  I 

We,  members  of  the  free  Churches  of  England,  come 
seldom  under  the  notice  of  Royalty,  and  have  little 


206  THE   ROYAL  JUBILEE. 

acquaintance  with  courts,  but  we  yield  to  none  in  our 
recognition  of  the  virtues  and  in  our  sympathy  with  the 
sorrows  of  the  Sovereign  Lady,  the  good  woman,  who 
rules  these  lands,  and  we  all  heartily  thank  God  for  her 
to-day,  and  pray  that  for  long  years  still  to  come  the 
familiar  letters  V.R.  may  stand,  as  they  have  stood  to 
two  generations,  as  the  symbol  of  womanly  purity  and 
of  the  faithful  discharge  of  queenly  duty. 


"THE    SPIRIT    OF    BURNINa." 

"He  ihall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  lire."— 
Matt.  iii.  11. 

THERE  is  something  extremely  beantifnl  and  pathetic 
in  John  the  Baptist's  clear  discernment  of  his 
limitations,  and  of  the  imperfection  of  his  work.  His 
immovable  hmnility  is  all  the  more  striking  because 
it  stands  side  by  side  with  as  immovable  a  courage  in 
confronting  evil-doers,  whether  of  low  or  high  degree. 
To  him  to  efface  himself  and  be  lost  in  the  light  of 
Christ  was  no  trial,  but  brought  joy  like  that  of  the 
friend  of  the  Bridegroom.  He  saw  that  the  spiritual 
deadness  and  moral  corruption  of  his  generation  was 
such  that  a  crash  must  come.  The  axe  was  "  laid  at 
the  root  of  the  trees,"  and  there  was  impending  a 
mighty  hewing  and  a  fierce  conflagration.  There  are 
periods  when  the  only  thing  to  be  done  with  the  present 
order  is  to  burn  it. 

But  John  saw,  too,  that  there  was  a  great  deal  more 
needed  than  he  could  give  ;  and  so,  with  a  touch  of 
sadness,  he  symbolises  the  incompleteness  of  his  work 
in  the  words  preceding  my  text,  by  reference  to  his 
baptism.  He  baptised  with  water  that  cleansed  the 
outside,  but  did  not  go  deeper.     It  was  cold,  negative. 

207 


208  "thb  spirit  of  burning.'* 

It  brought  no  new  impulses  ;  and  he  recognised  that 
something  far  other  than  it  was  wanted,  and  that  He  who 
was  to  come,  before  whom  his  whole  spirit  prostrated 
itself  in  joyful  submission,  was  to  plunge  into  a  holy 
fire,  which  would  cleanse  in  another  fashion  than  water 
could  do.  So  my  text  goes  very  deep  into  the  heart  of 
Christ's  work,  and  may  well  occupy  our  thoughts  on 
Whitsunday,  when  so  many  Churches  are  commemorating 
the  great  event  which  began  to  fulfil  John's  prophecy. 

I.  Let  me  ask  you  to  look,  then,  at  this  fiery 
Spirit. 

Now,  you  will  observe,  I  daresay,  the  singular  solemnity 
of  the  triple  refrain  at  the  close  of  three  contiguous 
verses,  each  of  which  ends  with  "  fire."  But  there  are 
fires  and  fires.  The  rotten  tree  "  is  cast  into  the  fire," 
the  empty  chaff  "is  burned  with  unquenchable  fire." 
But  there  is  another  kind  of  fire,  into  which  it  is  not 
destruction  but  blessedness  for  a  man  to  be  flung.  "  He 
shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire." 
That  is  promise,  not  threatening  ;  and  the  two  fires  are 
set  in  contrast.  Strange  that  superficial  readers  should 
so  often  have  omitted  to  notice  the  significance  of  this 
threefold  repetition  of  the  one  word. 

Now,  I  suppose  that  no  one  who  looks  at  the  passage 
carefully  can  doubt  that  the  fire  in  my  text  is  the 
symbol  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  I  would  point  to  another 
Instance  of  precisely  the  same  collocation,  in  reference 
to  the  same  subject,  of  the  reality  and  the  figure  which 
expresses  it,  in  our  Lord's  words,  about  being  born  of 
".Tater  and  of  the  Spirit.  Just  as  there  the  water  is  the 
f^ymbol  of  the  cleansing  influences  of  the  Spirit  and  has 
no  reference  whatsoever  to  the  water   of  baptism,  so 


"the  spikit  of  burning."  209 

here  the  fire  is  a  symbol,  in  another  form,  of  the  same 
cleansing  and  hallowing  operation. 

I  need  not  remind  you  that  this  metaphor  is  one  of 
frequent  occurrence  ;  in  the  Old  Testament  occasionally, 
and  in  the  New  Testament  habitually.  I  need  only 
recall  to  you  our  Lord's  own  words,  so  full  of  yearning, 
longing,  and  conscious  hindrances  :  "  I  am  come  to  send 
fire  upon  the  earth,  and  how  I  wish  it  was  already 
kindled  ; "  and  I  need  only  retnind  you,  in  passing,  of 
the  fiery  tongues  that  sat  upon  the  heads  of  the  disciples 
on  the  Day  of  Pentecost. 

So,  then,  if  we  take  this  symbol  as  expressive  of  the 
operations  of  that  Divine  Spirit  which  Christ  brings,  it 
may  suggest  to  us  some  thoughts  as  to  what  He  does 
for  human  nature,  and  what  He  is  willing  to  do  for  us 
all.  Let  me  just  try  to  work  out  very  briefly  the  force 
of  this  symbolical  representation. 

That  fire  gives  life.  That  seems  a  paradox,  but  put 
your  hands  or  your  lips  on  the  cheek  of  the  beloved 
corpse,  and  you  know  the  shock  of  icy  coldness.  Put 
them  on  the  living  flesh  that  holds  the  spirit  that  you 
love,  and  you  know  the  electric  glow  of  warmth.  Heat 
is  life  ;  death  is  cold.  And  so,  not  only  in  the  word 
"  spirit,"  whether  you  take  it  as  meaning  breath  or  as 
meaning  an  immaterial  personality,  there  is  conveyed 
the  promise  of  life,  but  in  the  symbol  of  "  fire  "  it  is  no 
less  conveyed.  For  though  there  is  a  fire  that  destroys 
there  is  a  warmth  that  vivifies. 

1,  for  my  part,  believe  that  modern  Evangelicalism 
has,  to  a  large  extent,  failed  in  "  prophesying  according 
to  the  proportion  of  faith,"  and  that  it  has  fixed  its 
gaze  far  too  exclusively  on  forgiveness  and  acceptance, 

14 


210  "the  spirit  of  burninq." 

and  the  escape  from  the  penal  consequences  of  sin,  as 
being  the  gifts  of  Christ  to  the  world,  and  as  making  up 
the  notion  of  Christ's  salvation,  and  has  not  sufficiently 
given  weight  and  proportionate  prominence  to  the  thought 
that  these  gifts — the  barring  out  of  penalty,  forgiveness, 
and  acceptance  with  God  ;  the  transference  into  the  con- 
dition of  friends  and  children  from  that  of  enemies  and 
aliens— are  but  the  preliminaries  to  the  true,  central, 
deepest  gift  which  Christ  has  to  bestow,  according  to 
His  own  great  words,  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have 
life."  It  is  the  gift  of  life  which  the  wholesome  mysti- 
cism of  Christianity  insists  upon  as  the  highest  that  He 
can  give.  Do  not  go  away  with  the  notion  that  it  is  a 
metaphor,  or  a  piece  of  rhetorical  embellishment  of  some 
simple  fact.  The  very  centre  of  Christ's  work  for  man 
is  that  He  breathes  into  the  dead  spirit,  dead  because  it 
lives  in  self,  the  germ  of  a  new  nature,  and  imparts  a 
spiritual  life,  without  which  we  are  dead  while  we  live. 
That  life  is  given  us  by  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus,  which  "makes  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death." 

Have  you  been  quickened  by  that  indwelling  Spirit  ? 
Is  the  life  that  you  now  live  in  the  flesh  not  your  life, 
but  the  life  of  Christ  that  lives  in  you  ?  "  He  shall 
baptize  with  the  .  .  .  fire  "  that  gives  life. 

Again,  this  fire  kindles  emotion.  We  all  know  the 
common  use  of  that  metaphor  in  language.  We  speak 
about  ardent  desires,  warm  feelings,  fervid  emotions, 
burning  love,  and  the  like.  The  great  gift  which  Christ 
brings  to  men  is  in  one  aspect  the  heightening  and 
hallowing  of  the  emotions.  Ancient  moralists  did  not 
know  what  to  do  with  them.    They  tried  to  suppresa 


"the  spirit  of  burning."  211 

them,  and  looked  upon  all  the  play  of  feeling  as  being 
disturbing  to  the  loftier  reason  and  will.  Jesus  Christ 
puts  holy  fire  into  the  emotions,  and  heightens  and 
sanctifies  them,  and  makes  love,  which  the  world  regards 
as  a  weakness,  and  often  handles  so  as  to  make  it  a  sin, 
the  basis  of  all  goodness,  and  the  productive  soil  in 
which  everything  that  is  of  good  report  will  grow. 

The  fire  kindles  men's  love.  Think  what  a  strange, 
new  thing,  when  Christ  came  into  the  world,  it  was  for 
men  to  love  God.  Judaism  had  very  partially  grasped 
that  idea.  The  selectest  of  the  psalmists  had  had  glimpses 
of  it,  but  for  the  nation  at  large  there  was  no  emotion  in 
their  religion,  no  warmth  of  feeling  in  their  prayers,  no 
love  to  God  in  their  hearts.  Christ  came,  and  everything 
became  different ;  and  men  poured  out  the  treasures  of 
their  hearts  like  water  at  His  feet,  and  felt  that  He,  and 
He  only,  was  the  adequate  object  of  all  their  emotions, 
and  that  all  were  glorified  and  ennobled  when  they  were 
fixed  on  Him. 

Religion  is  worth  nothing  unless  it  is  warm.  There 
is  nothing  more  irrational  than  that  people  should ;  as  a 
great  many  of  ns  do,  believe  in  a  way  the  truths  of 
Christianity,  and  feel  next  door  to  nothing  about  them. 
Its  truths  are  so  solemn,  so  certain,  so  tremendous,  that 
not  to  be  stirred  to  the  very  depths  of  our  being  by  them, 
and  yet  to  believe  them,  or  say  we  do,  is  sheer  insanity. 
Some  of  you  will  remember  that  in  the  original  preface 
to  the  "  Christian  Year,"  a  book  about  which  I  would 
speak  with  all  admiration,  the  writer  commits  himself  to 
the  statement  that  "  next  to  a  sound  creed  there  is  nothing 
of  so  much  importance  as  a  sober  standard  of  feeling  in 
matters  of  practical  religion."    Well,  I  do  not  think  so. 


212  "the  spirit  of  burning." 

It  seems  to  me  that  "a  sober  standard  of  feeling*'  is 
only  a  fine  name  for  what  Jesus  Christ  designated  as 
"  neither  cold  nor  hot,"  and  that,  instead  of  sober  feeling, 
what  we  want  is  the  burning  enthusiasm,  of  which  one 
sees  so  little  in  Christians  round  about  one  and  feels  so 
little  in  one's  own  heart. 

Oh,  brethren,  not  to  be  all  aflame  is  madness,  if  we 
believe  our  own  creed.  Isaiah  says,  in  one  of  his  gigantic 
metaphors,  "  The  Lord's  fire  is  in  Zion,  and  His  furnace 
in  Jerusalem."  Does  that  apply  to  rnost  of  our 
Churches,  Nonconformist  or  Episcopalian  ?  A  fire  and 
a  furnace— does  that  describe  this  church  ?  An  ice-house 
would  be  a  better  illustration  of  the  facts,  in  a  great 
many  cases.  "  He  shall  baptize  you  with  .  .  .  fire  "  ; 
and  if  it  does  anything  it  will  kindle  emotion. 

Again,  that  fire  cleanses  by  kindling.  John's  water- 
baptism  washed  the  outside.  There  is  a  better  way  of 
making  things  clean  than  that.  Fire  purifies,  either  by 
melting  down  the  obstinate  ore  and  bringing  the  scum 
up  to  the  top,  from  whence  it  may  be  skimmed,  leaving 
the  residue  clear,  or  it  cleanses  by  dissipating  the  cause 
of  the  foulness,  and,  as  it  passes  ofi^,  the  stain  melts 
from  the  surface  of  the  disfigured  clay.  The  great  glory 
of  the  Gospel  is  to  cleanse  men's  hearts  by  raising  their 
temperature,  making  them  pure  because  they  are  made 
warm,  and  that  separates  them  from  their  evils.  It 
is  slow  work  to  take  mallet  and  chisel  and  try  to  chip 
ofi*  the  rust,  speck  by  speck,  from  a  row  of  railings, 
or  to  punch  tbe  specks  of  iron  ore  out  of  the  ironstone. 
Pitch  the  whole  thing  into  the  furnace,  and  the  work 
will  be  done — which,  being  translated,  is — the  true 
way  for   a  man  to  be   purged  of  his  weaknesses,  his 


"the  spikit  of  burning."  213 

meannesses,  his  passions,  his  lusts,  sins,  is  to  submit 
himself  to  the  cleansing  fire  of  that  Divine  Spirit. 

II.  And  now  let  me  say  a  word  about  the  baptism 
with  the  fiery  Spirit. 

Now,  you  all  know  that  I  am  a  Baptist ;  and  you  also 
all  know  that  I  do  not  obtrude  my  views  upon  that 
subject,  as  an  ordinary  thing,  upon  my  congregation. 
And  so  you  will  not  suppose  me  to  be  trying  to  bring 
anything  in  by  a  side  wind,  or  to  be  seeking  for  proselytes, 
if  I,  purely  as  a  Biblical  critic,  make  a  plain  observation. 
The  American  Revisers  who  worked  along  with  our 
Revision  Committee,  made  a  suggestion,  which  you 
will  find  printed  at  the  end  of  the  Revised  New  Testa- 
ments, to  the  efiect  that  in  all  cases  after  the  word 
"  baptism  "  or  "  baptised,"  the  "  with  "  of  the  text,  and 
the  "  in "  of  the  margin,  should  change  places.  Our 
more  conservative  Revision  Committee  did  not  see 
their  way  to  that,  but  they  preserved  the  recommendation. 
And  there  can  be  no  question — I  speak  now,  not  from 
my  own  denominational  standpoint,  but  as  voicing  the 
opinion  of  the  majority  of  students — there  can  be  no 
question  that  here  the  literal  rendering  is  the  accurate 
rendering,  and  that  fire  is  not  the  instrument  with 
which,  but  the  element  in  which,  the  person  is  baptised. 
Neither  can  there  be  any  question  that  the  primitive 
form  of  baptism  is  part  of  the  significance  of  the  symbol 
here — viz.,  a  total  immersion  in  the  element. 

Now,  that  being  so,  let  me  just  suggest,  for  your 
time  will  not  allow  of  my  doing  more,  how,  from  this 
symbol,  there  comes  a  very  solemn  and  impressive 
thought  and  appeal  to  all  professing  Christian  people. 
John's   prophecy,  which  was  God's  promise,  is  that  a 


214  "the  spirit  of  bueninq," 

man  shall  be  plunged  into,  immersed  over  head  and 
ears  in,  this  fiery  Spirit.  What  can  that  mean  less 
than  a  complete  influence  exercised  over  all  a  man's 
faculties,  desires,  and  capabilities  ?  What  can  it  mean 
less  than  a  complete  bestowment  of  that  sanctifying 
Spirit  ? 

The  same  completeness  is  suggested  by  other  sayings 
of  Scripture  upon  the  same  subject ;  when  we  read,  for 
instance,  of  Christ's  promise  to  the  Apostles  that  before 
long  they  should  be  "clothed  with  power  from  on 
high,"  as  if  with  a  vesture  enveloping  the  whole  body  ; 
or,  as  when  we  read  about  being  "  filled  with  the  Spirit," 
as  a  vessel  charged  to  the  brim  with  some  precious  wine. 
If  that  is  God's  ideal,  if  that  is  God's  desire,  if  that 
complete  subjection  to,  and  reception  of,  the  Divine 
influences  is  possible  through  Jesus  Christ,  what  shall 
we  say  of  the  fragmentary,  the  partial,  the  broken 
operations  of  that  hallowing  Spirit  upon  the  best  and 
highest  of  us  ?  There  are  but  points  in  a  row,  with 
long  gaps  between,  when  there  ought  to  be  one  straight 
line,  without  variation  and  without  interruption.  Dear 
friends,  let  us  try  ourselves  by  that  image  of  a  complete 
immersion  in  the  fire  of  the  Spirit,  and  ask  ourselves 
why  is  it  that,  with  such  a  possibility,  the  reality  ot 
my  life  is  as  earth-bound  as  it  is. 

III.  Lastly,  we  have  here  the  Administrator  of  the 
baptism  with  the  Spirit  of  fire. 

"He  shall  baptize  you."  I  need  not,  I  suppose, 
remind  you  of  how,  in  many  places,  our  Lord  claimed 
that  same  power.  You  remember  the  passage  that  I 
have  already  quoted  :  "  I  am  come  to  fling  fire  upon 
the  earth,"  and  the  more  gracious  aspect  of  the  same 


"the  spieit  of  burning."  215 

promise  given  to  the  sorrowing  company  in  the  upper 
chamber :  "  I  will  send  Him  unto  you."  I  need  not 
remind  you  of  what  a  tremendous  claim  that  is  to  be 
made  by  a  man  sitting  among  men,  nor  what  it  involves 
about  Him  that  made  it.  Nor  is  there  time,  here  and 
now,  to  enter  upon  the  deep  thoughts  that  are  suggested, 
by  this  glimpse  into  the  administration  of  the  revelation, 
in  regard  to  the  relations  of  the  Divine  nature  within 
itself.  The  revelation  in  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus 
Christ  had  to  be  completed,  before  the  fulness  of  the 
operations  of  the  cleansing  Spirit  could  be  realised.  He 
had  been  brooding  over  the  earth  from  the  beginning, 
and,  in  lands  far  away  from  revelation,  had  been  touch- 
ing men's  hearts  and  consciences.  But  until  the  Son 
of  man  was  glorified,  that  Spirit  in  its  perfection  could 
not  be  given.  It  is  no  mere  arbitrary  limitation,  but 
one  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  gift  and  in  the  nature 
of  man,  that  it  can  only  be  bestowed  upon  those  that 
have  received  Christ  by  faith. 

So  we  come  back  to  the  old  central  truth,  that  Christ, 
the  Administrator  of  the  baptism  with  the  fiery  Spirit, 
mast  be  clung  to  by  simple  faith,  ere  we  can  pass  into 
the  blessed  possession  of  the  highest  gift  from  Him. 
Trust  Him,  and  He  bestows  His  Spirit  upon  us  ;  refrain 
from  trusting  Him,  and  we  never  possess  it. 

I  cannot  close  without  just  recurring,  in  one  word, 
to  that  solemn  refrain  to  which  1  have  already  referred, 
as  occurring  in  these  adjacent  verses.  It  comes  like 
the  triple  tolling  of  some  great  bell :  "  Fire  !  fire  ! 
fire  I "  One  kind  of  fire  is  for  the  barren  tree  and  the 
empty  chaff,  another  kind  of  fire  is  for  the  man  that 
believes  in  Christ.     Yes  :   the  choice  is  before  eacn  of 


216  "the  spikit  of  buening." 

us — to  be  plunged  into  the  fire  which  cleanses  and 
quickens,  or  to  be  cast  into  the  fire  that  destroys.  Like 
the  three  Jews  in  Babylon,  we  may  walk  in  that  fiery 
furnace  and  be  glad  to  feel  the  flames  curling  round 
our  limbs  and  consuming  our  bonds.  You  have  to  make 
your  choice  of  which  of  these  fires  you  will  have 
experience. 


<*SEEK   YE."— "I   WILL   SEEK." 

"When  Thou  saidst,  Seek  ye  My  face,  my  heart  said  unto  TheCi 
Thy  face,  Lord,  will  I  seek.  Hide  not  Thy  face  far  from  me." — 
P8.  xxvii.  8,  9. 

WE  have  here  a  report  of  a  brief  dialogue  between 
God  and  a  devout  soul.  The  psalmist  tells  us 
of  God's  invitation  and  of  his  acceptance,  and  on  both 
he  builds  the  prayer  that  the  face  which  he  had  been 
bidden  to  seek,  and  had  sought,  may  not  be  hid  from 
him.  The  correspondence  between  what  God  said  to 
him  and  what  he  said  to  God  is  even  more  emphatically 
expressed  in  the  original  than  in  our  version.  In  the 
Hebrew  the  sentence  is  dislocated,  at  the  risk  of  being 
obscure,  for  the  sake  of  bringing  together  the  two  voices. 
It  runs  thus,  "  My  heart  said  to  Thee,"  and  then,  instead 
of  going  on  with  his  answer,  the  psalmist  interjects 
God's  invitation  "  Seek  ye  My  face,"  and  then,  side 
by  side  with  that,  he  lays  his  response,  "  Thy  face. 
Lord,  will  I  seek."  The  completeness  and  swiftness 
of  his  answer  could  not  be  more  vividly  expressed. 
To  hear  was  to  obey  :  as  soon  as  God's  merciful  call 
sounded,  the  psalmist's  heart  responded,  like  a  harp- 
string  thrilled  into  music  by  the  vibration  of  another 
tuned  to  the  same  note.    Without  hesitation,  and  in 

217 


218  "  SKEK    YE." — "I    WILL    SEEK." 

entire  correspondence  with  the  call,  was  his  response. 
So  swiftly,  completely,  resolutely  should  we  respond 
to  God's  voice,  and  our  ready  "  I  will "  should  answer 
His  commandment,  as  the  man  at  the  wheel  repeats 
the  captain's  orders  whilst  he  carries  them  out.  Upon 
such  acceptance  of  such  an  invitation  we,  too,  may  build 
the  prayer,  "  Hide  not  Thy  face  far  from  me." 

Now,  there  are  three  things  here  that  I  desire  to 
look  at — God's  merciful  call  to  us  all;  the  response 
of  the  devout  soul  to  that  call ;  and  the  prayer  which 
is  built  upon  both. 

I.  We  have  God's  merciful  call  to  us  all. 

"Thou  saidst,  Seek  ye  My  face."  Now,  that  expres- 
sion, "the  face  of  God,"  though  highly  metaphorical, 
is  perfectly  clear  and  defined  in  its  meaning.  It  corre- 
sponds substantially  to  what  the  Apostle  Paul  calls, 
in  speaking  of  the  knowledge  of  God  beyond  the  limits 
of  Revelation,  "  that  which  may  be  known  of  God  " ; 
or,  in  more  modern  language,  the  side  of  the  Divine 
nature  which  is  turned  to  man  ;  or,  in  plainer  words  still, 
God,  in  so  far  as  He  is  revealed.  It  means  substantially 
the  same  thing  as  the  other  Scriptural  expression,  "  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  Both  phrases  draw  a  broad  dis- 
tinction between  what  God  is,  in  the  infinite  fulness  of 
His  incomprehensible  being,  and  what  He  is  as  revealed 
to  man ;  and  both  imply  that  what  is  revealed  is 
knowledge,  real  and  valid,  though  it  may  be  imperfect. 

This,  then,  being  the  meaning  of  the  phrase,  what 
is  the  meaning  of  the  invitation  :  "  Seek  ye  My  face  "  ? 
Have  we  to  search  for  that,  as  if  it  were  something 
hidden,  far  ofiF,  lost,  and  only  to  be  recovered  by  our 
effort  ?    No  :    a  thousand  times  no.     For  thp  seeking, 


"SBBK   YE." — "l   WILL    SEEK."  219 

to  which  God  mercifully  invites  ns,  is  but  the  turning 
of  the  direction  of  our  desires  to  Him,  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  His  face  is  more  than  all  else  to  men,  the 
recognition  that  whilst  there  are  many  that  say,  "  Who 
will  show  us  any  good  ? "  and  put  the  question  im- 
patiently, despairingly,  vainly,  they  that  turn  the  seek- 
ing into  a  prayer,  and  ask,  "  Lord  I  lift  Thou  the  light 
of  Thy  countenance  upon  us,"  will  never  ask  in  vain. 
To  seek  is  to  desire,  to  turn  the  direction  of  thought 
and  will  and  affection  to  Him,  and  to  take  heed  that 
the  ordering  of  our  daily  lives  is  such  as  that  no  mist 
rising  from  them  shall  come  between  us  and  that 
brightness  of  light,  or  hide  from  us  the  vision  splendid. 
They  who  seek  God  by  desire,  by  the  direction  of  thought 
and  will  and  love,  and  by  the  regulation  of  their  daily 
lives  in  accordance  with  that  desire,  are  they  who  obey 
this  commandment. 

Next  we  come  to  that  great  thought  that  God  is 
ever  sounding  out  to  all  mankind  this  invitation  to  seek 
His  face.  By  the  revelation  of  Himself  He  bids  us 
all  sun  ourselves  in  the  brightness  of  His  countenance. 
One  of  the  New  Testament  writers,  in  a  passage  which 
is  mistranslated  in  our  Authorised  Version,  says  that 
God  "calls  us  by  His  own  glory  and  virtue."  That 
is  to  say,  the  very  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Being 
is  such  that  there  lies  in  it  a  summons  to  behold  Him, 
and  an  attraction  to  Himself.  So  fair  is  He,  that  He 
but  needs  to  withdraw  the  veil,  and  men's  hearts  rejoice 
in  that  countenance,  which  is  as  the  sun  shining  in  his 
strength  ;  "  nor  know  we  anything  more  fair  than  is  the 
smile  upon  His  face."  If  we  see  Him  as  He  really  is, 
we  cannot  choose  but  love.     By  all  His  works  He  calls  ua 


220  "SiiiiK   YE." — "l  WILL   SEEK," 

to  seek  Him,  not  only  because  the  intellect  demands 
that  there  shall  be  a  personal  will  behind  all  these 
phenomena,  but  because  they  in  themselves  proclaim 
His  name,  and  the  proclamation  of  His  name  is  the 
summons  to  behold. 

By  the  very  make  of  our  own  spirits  He  calls  us  to 
Himself.  Our  restlessness,  our  yearnings,  our  movings 
about  as  aliens  in  the  midst  of  things  seen  and  visible, 
all  these  bid  us  turn  to  Him  in  whom  alone  our  capacities 
can  be  satisfied,  and  the  hunger  of  our  souls  appeased. 
You  remember  the  old  story  of  the  Saracen  woman  who 
came  to  England  seeking  her  lover,  and  passed  through 
these  foreign  cities,  with  no  word  upon  her  tongue  that 
could  be  understood  of  those  that  heard  her  except  his 
name  whom  she  sought.  Ah  I  that  is  how  men  wander 
through  the  earth,  strangers  in  the  midst  of  it.  They 
cannot  translate  the  cry  of  their  own  hearts,  but  it  means, 
"  God — my  soul  thirsteth  for  Thee  "  ;  and  the  thirst  bids 
us  seek  His  face. 

He  summons  us  by  all  the  providences  and  events  of 
our  changeful  lives.  Our  sorrows  by  their  poignancy, 
our  joys  by  their  incompleteness  and  their  transiency, 
alike  call  us  to  Him  in  whom  alone  the  sorrows  can 
be  soothed  and  the  joys  made  full  and  remain.  Our 
duties,  by  their  heaviness,  call  us  to  turn  ourselves  to 
Him,  in  whom  alone  we  can  find  the  strength  to  fill 
the  rdle  that  is  laid  upon  us,  and  to  discharge  our  daily 
tasks. 

But,  most  of  all.  He  summons  us  to  Himself  by  Him 
who  is  the  angel  of  His  face,  "  the  effulgence  of  His 
glory,  and  the  express  image  of  His  person."  In  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the 


"SiCJtfK   YE." — "l  WILL    SEEK."  221 

glory  of  God  "  beams  out  npon  us,  as  it  never  shone  on 
this  psalmist  of  old.  He  saw  but  a  portion  of  that 
countenance,  through  a  thick  veil  which  thinned  as  faith 
gazed,  but  was  never  wholly  withdrawn.  The  voice  that 
he  heard  calling  him  was  less  penetrating  and  less 
laden  with  love  than  the  voice  that  calls  us.  He 
caught  some  tones  of  invitation  sounding  in  providences 
and  prophesies,  in  ceremonies  and  in  law  ;  we  hear  them 
more  full  and  clear  from  the  lips  of  a  brother.  They 
sound  to  us  from  the  Cradle  and  the  Cross,  and  they 
are  wafted  down  to  us  from  the  Throne.  God's  merciful 
invitation  to  us  poor  men  never  has  taken,  nor  will,  nor 
can,  take  a  sweeter  and  more  attractive  form  than  in 
Christ's  version  of  it :  "  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that 
labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'' 
Friend  1  that  summons  comes  to  us ;  may  we  deal  with 
it  as  the  psalmist  did  ! 

II.  That  brings  me  to  note,  secondly,  the  devout 
soul's  response  to  the  loving  call  from  God. 

I  have  already  pointed  out  how  beautifully  and  vividly 
the  contrast  between  the  two  is  expressed  in  our  text. 
''  Seek  ye  My  face  "— "  Thy  face  will  I  seek."  The 
psalmist  takes  the  general  invitation  and  converts  it 
into  an  individual  one,  to  which  he  responds.  God's 
"  ye "  is  met  by  his  "  I."  The  psalmist  makes  no 
hesitation  or  delay — "  When  thou  saidst  .  .  .  my  heart 
said  to  Thee."  The  psalmist  gathers  himself  together 
in  a  concentrated  resolve  of  a  fixed  determination — "  Thy 
face  will  I  seek."     That  is  how  we  ought  to  respond. 

Make  the  general  invitation  thy  very  own.  God 
ii  nmons  all,  because  He  summons  each.  He  does  not 
:     c;..-t  invitations  out  at  random  over  the  heads  of  a 


222  "seek  yb."— "i  will  seek." 

crowd,  as  some  rich,  man  might  fling  coppers  into  a  mob 
but  He  addresses  every  one  of  us  singly  and  separately. 
as  if  there  were  not  another  soul  in  the  universe  to  hear 
His  voice  but  our  very  own  selves.  It  is  for  us  not  to 
lose  ourselves  in  the  crowd,  since  He  has  not  lost  us  in 
it ;  but  to  appropriate,  to  individualise,  to  make  our 
very  own,  the  universality  of  His  call  to  the  world.  It 
matters  nothing  to  you  what  other  men  do ;  it  matters 
nothing  to  you  how  many  others  may  be  invited,  and 
whether  they  may  accept  or  may  refuse.  When  that 
"  Seek  ye  "  comes  to  my  heart,  life  or  death  depends  on 
my  answering,  "  Whatsoever  others  may  do,  as  for  me, 
I  will  seek  Thy  face."  We  preachers  that  have  to  stand 
and  address  a  multitude  souud  out  the  invitation,  and 
it  loses  in  power,  the  more  there  are  to  listen  to  us.  If 
I  could  get  you  one  by  one,  the  poorest  words  would 
have  more  weight  with  you  than  the  strongest  have 
when  spoken  to  a  crowd.  Brother,  God  individualises 
us,  and  God  speaks  to  thee,  "  Wilt  thou  behold  My 
face  ?  *'    Answer,  "  As  for  me,  I  will." 

Again,  the  psalmist  "  made  haste,  and  delayed  not, 
but  made  haste"  to  respond  to  the  merciful  summons. 
Ah  1  how  many  of  us,  in  how  many  different  ways,  fall 
into  the  snare  "  by-and-by "  1  "  not  now "  ;  and  all 
these  days,  that  slip  away  whilst  we  hesitate,  gather 
themselves  together  to  be  our  accusers  hereafter. 
Friend,  why  should  you  limit  the  blessedness  that 
may  come  into  your  life  to  the  fag  end  of  it  when  you 
have  got  tired  and  satiated,  or  tired  and  disappointed 
with  the  world  and  its  good  ?  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while 
He  may  be  found,  call  ye  upon  Him  while  He  is  near." 
It  is  poor  courtesy  to  show  to  a  merciful  invitation  from 


"seek   ye." — "l  WILL   SEEK."  223 

a  boantiful  host  if  I  say  :  "  After  I  have  looked  to  the 
oxen  I  have  bought,  and  tested  them,  and  measured  the 
field  that  I  have  acquired ;  after  I  have  drunk  the  sweet- 
ness of  wedded  life  with  the  wife  that  I  have  married, 
then  I  will  come.  But,  for  the  present,  I  pray  thee, 
have  me  excused."  And  that  is  what  many  are  doing, 
more  or  less. 

The  psalmist  gathered  himself  together  in  a  fixed 
resolve,  and  said,  "I  wilV^  That  is  what  we  have  to 
do.  A  languid  seeker  will  not  find  ;  an  earnest  one  will 
not  fail  to  find.  But  if  half-heartedly,  now  and  then, 
when  we  are  at  leisure  in  the  intervals  of  more  important 
and  pressing  daily  business,  we  spasmodically  bethink 
ourselves,  and  for  a  little  while  seek  for  the  light  of 
God's  felt  presence  to  shine  upon  us,  we  shall  not  get  it. 
But  if  we  lay  a  masterful  hand,  as  we  ought  to  do,  on 
these  divergent  desires  that  draw  us  asunder,  and  bind 
ourselves,  as  it  were,  together,  by  the  strong  cord  of  a 
resolved  purpose  carried  out  throughout  our  lives,  then 
we  shall  certainly  not  seek  in  vain. 

Alas !  how  strange  and  how  sad  is  the  reception 
which  this  merciful  invitation  receives  from  so  many  of 
us  I  Some  of  you  never  hear  it  at  all.  Standing  in  the 
very  focus  where  the  sounds  converge,  you  are  deaf,  as 
if  a  man  behind  the  veil  of  the  falling  water  of  Niagara, 
on  that  rocky  shelf  there,  should  hear  nothing.  From 
every  corner  of  the  universe  that  voice  comes  ;  from  all 
the  providences  and  events  of  our  lives  that  voice  comes  ; 
from  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  that  voice 
comes  ;  and  not  ,a  sound  reaches  your  ears.  "  Having 
ears,  they  hear  not.'*  And  some  of  us  might  take  the 
psalmist's  answer,  with  one  sad  word  added,  as  ours — 


224  "  SEEK   YB." — "  I   WILL   SEEK." 

"When  Thou  saidst,  Seek  ye  My  face,  my  heart  said 
unto  Thee,  Thy  face,  Lord,  will  I  not  seek." 

Brethren,  it  is  heaven  on  earth  to  say,  "  Thou  dost 
call,  and  I  answer.  Speak,  Lord,  for  Thy  servant 
heareth."  Yet  you  shut  yourselves  up  to,  and  with, 
misery  and  vanity,  if  you  so  deal  with  God's  merciful 
summons  as  some  of  us  are  dealing  with  it,  so  that  He 
has  to  say,  "I  called,  and  ye  refused;  I  stretched  out 
My  hand,  and  no  man  regarded." 

III.  Lastly,  we  have  here  a  prayer  built  upon  both  the 
invitation  and  the  acceptance. 

"Hide  not  Thy  face  far  from  me."  That  prayer 
implies  that  God  will  not  contradict  Himself.  His 
promises  are  commandments.  If  He  bids  us  seek  He 
binds  Himself  to  show.  His  veracity,  His  unchange- 
ableness,  are  pledged  to  this,  that  no  man  who  yields  to 
His  invitation  will  be  baulked  of  his  desire.  He  does 
not  hold  out  the  gift  in  His  hand,  and  then  twitch  it 
away  when  we  put  out  encouraged  and  stimulated  hands 
to  grasp  it.  You  have  seen  children  flashing  bright 
reflections  from  a  mirror  on  to  a  wall,  and  delighting  to 
direct  them  away  to  another  spot,  when  a  hand  has  been 
put  out  to  touch  them.  That  is  not  how  God  does.  The 
light  that  He  reveals  is  steady,  and  whosoever  turns  his 
face  to  it  will  be  irradiated  by  its  brightness. 

The  prayer  builds  itself  on  the  assurance  that,  because 
God  will  not  contradict  Himself,  therefore  every  heart 
seeking  is  sure  to  issue  in  a  heart  finding.  There  is  only 
one  region  where  that  is  true,  brethren ;  there  is 
only  one  tract  of  human  experience  in  which  the  promise 
is  always  and  absolutely  fulfilled  : — "  Ask,  and  ye  shall 
receive ;   seek,  and   ye  shall  find."     We  hunt  after  all 


"seek   TB." "l    ■rt'iIiL    SEEK."  225 

other  good,  and  at  the  best  we  get  it  in  part  or  for  a 
time,  and,  when  possessed,  it  is  not  as  bright  as  when  it 
shone  in  the  dehisive  colours  of  hope  and  desire.  If  you 
follow  other  good,  and  are  drawn  after  the  elusive  lights 
that  dance  before  you,  and  only  show  how  great  is  the 
darkness,  you  will  not  reach  them,  but  will  be  mired  in 
the  bog.  If  you  follow  after  God's  face,  it  will  make  a 
sunshine  in  the  shadiest  places  of  life  here.  You  will  be 
blessed  because  you  walk  all  the  day  long  in  the  light  of 
His  countenance,  and  when  you  pass  hence  it  will  irradiate 
the  darkness  of  death,  and  thereafter,  "His  servants 
shall  serve  Him,  and  shall  see  His  face,"  and,  seeing, 
shall  be  made  like  Him,  for  "  His  name  shall  be  in  their 
foreheads." 

Brethren,  we  have  to  make  our  choice  whether  we 
shall  see  His  face  here  on  earth,  and  so  meet  it  hereafter 
as  that  of  a  long-separated  and  long-desired  friend  ;  or 
whether  we  shall  see  it  first  when  He  is  on  His  throne, 
and  we  at  His  bar,  and  so  shall  have  to  call  on  the 
rocks  and  the  hills  to  fall  on  us,  and  cover  us  from 
the  face  of  Him  who  is  oar  judge. 


SOUND   DOCTRINE   OR  HEALTHY  TEACHING. 

"  Hold  fast  the  form  of  Bonnd  words,  which  thou  hast  heard  of  me, 
in  faith  and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesoa." — 2  Tim.  i  13. 

ANY  great  author  or  artist  passes,  in  the  course  of  his 
work,  from  one  manner  to  another  ;  so  that  a  person 
familiar  with  him  can  date  pretty  accurately  his  books 
or  pictures  as  being  in  his  "earlier"  or  "later"  style. 
So  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  there  are 
great  differences  between  Paul's  last  writings  and  his 
previous  ones.  The  surprising  thing  would  have  been 
if  there  had  not  been  such  differences.  The  peculiarities  of 
the  so-called  three  pastoral  Epistles  (the  two  to  Timothy, 
and  the  one  to  Titus)  are  not  greater  than  can  fairly  be 
accounted  for  by  advancing  years,  changed  circumstances, 
and  the  emergence  of  new  difficulties  and  enemies. 

Amongst  them  there  are  certain  expressions,  very  fre- 
quent in  these  letters  and  wholly  unknown  in  any  of  Paul's 
other  work.  These  have  been  pounced  upon  as  disproving 
the  genuineness  of  these  letters,  but  they  only  do  so  if 
you  assume  that  a  man,  when  he  gets  old,  must  never 
use  any  words  that  he  did  not  use  when  he  was  young, 
whatever  new  ideas  may  have  come  to  him.  Now,  in 
this  text  of  mine  is  one  of  these  phrases  peculiar  to  these 
later    letters — "  sound   words."      That    piirase   and   its 

226 


BOUND   DOOTEINB    OR    HEALTHY   TEACHINO.  227 

parallel  one,  "  sound  doctrine,"  occur  in  all  some  half- 
dozen  times  in  these  letters,  and  never  anywhere  else. 
The  expression  has  become  very  common  among  us.  It 
is  more  often  used  than  understood ;  and  the  popular 
interpretation  of  it  hides  its  real  meaning  and  obscures 
the  very  important  lessons  which  are  to  be  drawn  from 
the  true  understanding  of  it,  lessons  which,  I  take  leave 
to  think,  modern  Christianity  stands  very  sorely  in  need 
of.  I  desire  now  to  try  to  unfold  the  thoughts  and 
lessons  contained  in  this  phrase. 

I.  What  does  Paul  mean  by  a  "form  of  sound 
words"? 

I  begin  the  answer  by  saying  that  he  does  not  mean 
a  doctrinal  formula.  The  word  here  rendered  "  form  "  is 
the  same  which  he  employs  in  the  first  of  the  letters 
to  Timothy,  when  he  speaks  of  himself  and  his  own 
conversion  as  being  "  a  pattern  to  them  that  should 
hereafter  believe."  The  notion  intended  here  is  not  a 
cut-and-dried  creed,  but  a  body  of  teaching  which  shall 
not  be  compressed  within  the  limits  of  an  iron  form,  but 
shall  be  a  pattern  for  the  lives  of  the  men  to  whom  it  is 
given.  The  Revised  Version  has  "  the  pattern,"  and  not 
"  the  form."  I  take  leave  to  think  that  there  were  no 
creeds  in  the  Apostolic  time,  and  that  the  Church  would 
probably  have  had  a  firmer  grasp  of  God's  truth  if  there 
had  never  been  any.  At  all  events,  the  idea  of  a  cast- 
iron  creed,  into  which  the  whole  magnificence  of  the 


Christian  faith  is  crushed,  is  by  no  means  Paul's  idea 
in  the  word  here.  Then,  with  regard  to  the  other  part 
of  the  phrase — "  sound  words  " — we  all  know  how  that 
is  generally  understood  by  people.  Words  are  supposed 
to  be  "  sound,"  when  they  are  in  conformity  with  the 


226  SOUND  DOCTKINE   OE   HEALTHY   TEACHING. 

creed  of  the  critic.  A  sound  High  Churchman  is  an 
entirely  different  person  from  a  sound  Nonconformist. 
Puritan  and  Sacramentarian  differ  with  regard  to  the 
standard  which  they  set  up,  but  they  use  the  word  in 
the  same  way,  to  express  theological  statements  in  con- 
formity with  that  standard.  And  we  all  know  how 
harshly  the  judgment  is  sometimes  made,  and  how  easy 
it  is  to  damn  a  man  by  a  solemn  shake  of  the  head  or 
a  shrug  of  the  shoulders,  and  the  question  whether  he 
is  sound. 

Now,  all  that  is  clean  away  from  the  Apostolic  notion 
of  the  word  in  question.  If  we  turn  to  the  other  form  of 
this  phrase,  which  occurs  frequently  in  these  letters, 
"  sound  doctrine,"  there  is  another  remark  to  be  made. 
"  Doctrine "  conveys  to  the  ordinary  reader  the  notion 
of  an  abstract,  dry,  theological  statement  of  some  truth. 
Now,  what  the  Apostle  means  is  not  "  doctrine  "  so  much 
as  "  teaching  "  ;  and  if  you  will  substitute  "  teaching  " 
for  "  doctrine  "  you  will  get  much  nearer  his  thought ; 
just  as  you  will  get  nearer  it,  if,  for  "  sound,"  with  its 
meaning  of  conformity  to  a  theological  standard,  you 
substitute  what  the  word  really  means,  "  healthy,"  whole- 
some, health-giving,  healing.  All  these  ideas  ran  into 
each  other.  That  which  is  in  itself  healthy  is  health- 
giving  as  food,  and  as  a  medicine  is  healing.  The 
Apostle  is  not  describing  the  teaching  that  he  had  given 
to  Timothy  by  its  conformity  with  any  standard,  but 
is  pointing  to  its  essential  nature  as  being  wholesome, 
sound  in  a  physical  sense  ;  and  to  its  effect  as  being 
nealthy  and  health-giving.  Keep  hold  of  that  thought 
and  the  whole  aspect  of  this  saying  changes  at  once. 

There  is  only  one  other  point  that  I  would  suggest  in 


SOUND   DOCTRINE   OR   HEALTHY   TEACHING.  229 

this  first  part  of  my  sermon,  as  to  the  Apostolic  mean- 
ing of  these  words,  and  it  is  this  :  "  healing  "  and  "  holy  " 
are  etymologically  connected,  they  tell  us.  The  healing 
properties  of  the  teaching  to  which  Panl  refers  are  to 
be  found  entirely  in  this — its  tendency  to  make  men 
better,  to  produce  a  purer  morality,  a  loftier  goodness, 
a  more  unselfish  love,  and  so  to  bring  harmony  and 
health  into  the  diseased  nature.  The  one  healing  for 
a  man  is  to  be  holy  ;  and,  says  Paul,  the  way  to  be  holy 
is  to  keep  a  firm  hold  of  that  body  of  teaching  which  I 
have  presented. 

Now,  that  this  tendency  to  produce  nobler  manners 
and  purer  conduct  and  holier  character  is  the  true 
meaning  of  the  word  "  soaiid  "  here,  and  not  "  orthodox," 
as  we  generally  take  it,  will  be  quite  clear,  1  think,  if 
you  will  notice  how,  in  another  part  of  these  same 
letters,  the  Apostle  gives  a  long  catalogue  of  the  things 
which  are  contrary  to  the  health-giving  doctrine.  If 
the  ordinary  notion  of  the  expression  were  correct,  that 
catalogue  ought  to  be  a  list  of  heresies.  But  what  is 
it  ?  A  black  list  of  vices — "  deceivers,"  "  ungodly," 
"  sinners,"  "  unholy,"  "  profane,"  "  murderers,"  "  man- 
slayers,"  "  whoremongers,"  "  man-stealers,"  "  liars," 
"perjured"  persons.  Not  one  of  these  refers  to  aber- 
ration of  opinion  ;  all  of  them  point  to  divergencies  of 
conduct,  and  these  are  the  things  that  are  contrary  to 
the  healing  doctrine.  But  they  are  not  contrary,  often, 
to  sound  orthodoxy.  For  there  have  been  a  great  many 
imitators  of  that  King  of  France,  who  carried  little 
leaden  images  of  saints  and  the  Virgin  in  Jiis  hat  and 
the  devil  in  his  heart.  "  The  form  of  sound  words  " 
is  the  pattern  of  healing  teaching,  which  proves  Itself 


230  SOUND    DOCTRINE   OB    HEALTHY   TEAOHINO. 

healing  because  it  makes  holy.  Now,  that  is  my  first 
question  answered. 

II.  Where  Paul  thought  these  healing  words  were  to 
be  found. 

He  had  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  that.  They  were  in 
the  message  that  he  preached  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
salvation.  There  and  there  only,  in  his  estimation  and 
inspired  teaching,  are  such  words  to  be  found.  The 
truth  of  Christ,  His  incarnation,  His  sacrifice,  His  resur- 
rection, His  ascension,  the  gift  of  His  Divine  Spirit,  with 
all  the  mighty  truths  on  which  these  great  facts  rest, 
and  all  which  flow  from  these  great  facts,  these,  in  the 
aggregate,  are  the  health-giving  words  for  the  sickly 
world. 

Now,  historically,  it  is  proved  to  be  so.  I  do  not  need 
to  defend,  as  if  it  were  in  full  conformity  with  the  dictates 
and  principles  of  Christianity,  the  life  and  practice  of 
any  generation  of  Christian  people.  But  this  I  do 
venture  to  say,  that  the  world  has  been  slowly  lifted,  all 
through  the  generations,  by  the  influence,  direct  and 
indirect,  of  the  great  truths  of  Christianity,  and  that 
to-day  the  very  men  who,  in  the  name  of  certain  large 
principles  which  they  have  learned  from  the  Gospel,  are 
desirous  of  brushing  aside  the  old-fashioned  Gospel,  are 
kicking  down  the  ladder  by  which  they  climbed,  and 
that,  with  all  the  imperfections,  for  which  we  have  to 
take  shame  to  ourselves  before  God ;  still  the  reflection 
of  the  perfect  Image  which  is  cast  into  the  world  from 
the  mirror  of  the  collective  Christian  conduct  and 
character,  though  it  be  distorted  by  many  a  flaw  in  the 
glass,  and  imperfect  by  reason  of  many  a  piece  of  the 
reflecting  medium   having   dropped   away,  is   still  the 


SOUND    DOCTRINE   OR   HEALTHY   TEACHING.  231 

fairest  embodiment  of  character  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  Why,  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  sarcasms  that 
we  have  all  heard,  till  we  are  wearied  of  them,  about 
"  the  Nonconformist  conscience  "  ?  The  adjective  is 
wrong  ;  it  should  be  "  the  Christian  conscience."  But 
with  that  correction  I  claim  the  sarcasms  as  unconscious 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  the  Christian  ideal  of  character 
and  conduct  set  forth,  and  approximately  realised,  by 
religious  people,  is  far  above  the  average  morality  of 
even  a  so-called  Christian  nation.  And  all  that  is  due 
to  the  "  pattern  of  health-giving  words." 

Now,  the  historical  confirmation  of  Paul's  claim  that 
these  health-giving  words  were  to  be  found  in  his 
Gospel  is  no  more  than  is  to  be  expected,  if  we  look 
at  the  contents  of  that  Gospel  to  which  he  thus  appeals. 
For  there  never  has  been  such  an  instrument  for 
regenerating  individuals  and  society  as  lies  in  the  truths 
of  Christianity,  firmly  grasped  and  honestly  worked  out. 
Their  healing  power  comes,  first,  from  their  giving  the 
sense  of  pardon  and  acceptance.  Brethren,  there  is 
nothing,  as  I  humbly  venture  to  affirm,  that  will  go 
down  to  the  fountain  and  origin  of  all  the  ills  of  man, 
except  that  teaching  "  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  to  Himself,  not  imputing  unto  them  their  tres- 
passes." That  reality  of  guilt,  that  schism  and  aliena- 
tion between  man  and  God,  must  be  dealt  with  first 
before  you  can  produce  high  morality.  Unless  you  deal 
with  that  central  disease  you  do  very  little.  Something 
you  do  ;  but  the  cancer  is  deep-seated,  and  the  world't: 
remedies  for  it  may  cure  pimples  on  the  surface, 
but  are  powerless  to  extirpate  the  malignant  tumour 
that  has  laid  hold  of  the  vitals.     You  must  begin  by 


232  SOUND    DOCTRINE   OR   HEALTHY   TEACHINO. 

dealing  witli  the  disease  of  sin,  not  only  in  its  aspect 
as  habit,  but  in  its  consequence  of  guilt  and  responsi- 
bility and  separation  from  God,  before  you  can  bring 
health  to  the  sick  man. 

And  then,  beyond  that,  I  need  but  remind  you  of  how 
a  higher  and  more  wholesome  morality  is  made  possible 
by  these  health-giving  words,  inasmuch  as  they  set  forth 
for  us  the  perfect  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  inasmuch 
as  they  bring  into  operation  love,  the  mightiest  of  all 
powers  to  mould  a  life,  inasmuch  as  they  open  up  for 
us,  far  more  solemnly  and  certainly  than  ever  else  has 
been  revealed,  the  solemn  thought  of  judgment,  and  of 
every  man  giving  account  of  himself  to  God,  and  the 
assurance  that  "  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  here,  that," 
a  thousand-fold  increased  in  the  crop,  "  shall  he  also 
reap  "  in  the  eternities.  In  addition  to  the  example  of 
perfection  in  the  beloved  Christ,  the  mighty  motive  of 
love,  the  solemn  urgency  of  judgment  and  retribution, 
the  health-giving  words  bring  to  us  the  assurance  of  a 
Divine  power  dwelling  within  us,  to  lift  us  to  heights 
of  purity  and  goodness  to  which  our  unaided  feet  can 
never,  never  climb.  And  for  all  these  reasons  the 
message  of  Christ's  incarnation  and  dt  ath  is  the  health- 
giving  word  for  the  world. 

But,  further,  let  me  remind  you  ^.hat,  according  to 
the  Apostolic  teaching,  these  healing  and  health-giving 
effects  will  not  be  produced  except  by  that  Gospel. 
Some  of  you,  perhaps,  may  have  listened  to  the  first 
part  of  my  sermon  with  approbation,  because  it  seemed 
to  fit  in  with  the  general  disparagement  of  doctrine 
prevalent  in  this  day.  Will  you  listen  H  this  part  too  ? 
I  venture  to  assert  that,  although  therf^  are  many  men 


BOUND   DOCTRINE   OR   HEALTHY   TKAOHTNa.  233 

apart  from  Christ  who  have  as  clear  a  conception  of 
what  they  ought  to  be  and  to  do  as  any  Christian,  and 
some  men  apart  from  Christ  who  do  aim  after  high  and 
pure,  noble  lives,  not  altogether  unsuccessfully,  yet  on 
the  whole,  on  the  wide  scale,  and  in  the  long  run,  if  you 
change  the  "  pattern  of  health-giving  words,"  you  lower 
the  health  of  the  world.  It  seems  to  me  that  this 
generation  is  an  object-lesson  in  that  matter.  Why  is 
it  that  these  two  things  are  running  side  by  side  in  the 
literature  of  these  closing  years  of  the  century — viz.,  a 
rejection  of  the  plain  laws  of  morality,  especially  in  regard 
of  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  and  a  rejection  of  the  old- 
fashioned  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  I  venture  to  think 
that  the  two  things  stand  to  each  other  very  largely  in 
the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  and  that,  if  you  want 
to  bring  back  the  world  to  Puritan  morality,  you  will 
have  to  go  back  in  the  main  to  Puritan  theology.  I 
do  not  mean  to  insist  upon  any  pinning  of  faith  to  any 
theological  system,  but  this  I  am  bound  to  say,  and 
I  beseech  you  to  consider,  that  if  you  strike  out  from 
the  "  pattern  of  health-giving  words  "  the  truth  of  the 
Incarnation,  the  sacrifice  on  the  Cross,  the  Resurrection, 
the  Ascension,  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  the  "  health- 
giving  words,"  that  you  have  left  are  not  enough  to  cure 
a  fly. 

III.  Lastly,  notice  what  Paul  would  have  us  do  with 
these  "health-giving  words." 

"Hold  the  form  ...  in  faith  and  love,  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus." 

Now,  that  exhortation  includes  three  things.  Your 
time  fvill  not  allow  me  to  do  more  than  just  touch  them. 
First  it  applies  to  the  understanding.     "  Hold  fast  the 


234  SOUND   DOCTEINE   OR   HEALTHY    TEACHINa. 

teaching  "  by  letting  it  occupy  your  minds.  Brethrerij 
I  am  unwillingly  bound  to  acknowledge  my  suspicion 
that  a  very  large  number  of  Christian  people  scarcely 
ever  occupy  their  thoughts  with  the  facts  and  principles 
of  the  Gospel,  and  that  they  have  no  firm  and  intelli- 
gent grasp  of  these,  either  singly  or  in  their  connection. 
I  would  plead  for  less  newspaper  and  more  Bible ;  for 
less  novel  and  more  Gospel.  I  know  how  hard  it 
is  for  busy  men  to  have  spare  energy  for  anything 
beyond  their  business  and  the  necessary  claims  of 
society,  but  I  would  even  venture  to  advise  a  little 
less  of  what  is  called  Christian  work,  in  order  to  get 
a  little  more  Christian  knowledge.  "  Come  ye  your- 
selves apart  into  a  solitary  place,"  said  the  Master  ; 
and  all  busy  workers  need  that.  "  Hold  fast  the  health- 
giving  words  "  by  meditation,  a  lost  art  among  so  many 
Christians. 

Tl)e  exhortation  applies  next  to  the  heart.  "  Hold 
...  in  faith  and  love."  If  that  notion  of  the  expres- 
sion, which  I  have  been  trying  to  combat,  were  the 
correct  one,  there  would  be  no  need  for  anything  beyond 
familiarising  the  understanding  with  the  bearings  of 
the  doctrinal  truths.  But  Paul  sees  need  for  a  great 
deal  more.  The  understanding  brings  to  the  emotions 
that  on  which  they  fasten  and  feed.  Faith — which  is 
more  than  credence,  being  an  act  of  the  will — casts  itself 
on  the  truth  believed,  or  rather  on  the  person  revealed 
in  the  truth ;  and  love,  kindled  by  faith,  and  flowing 
out  in  grateful  response  and  self-abandonment,  are  as 
needful  as  orthodox  belief,  in  order  to  hold  fast  the  health- 
giving  words. 

The  exhortation  applies,  finally,  to  character  and  con- 


SOUND   DOCTRINE   OR   HEALTHY   TEAOHINQ.  235 

duct.  Emotion,  even  when  it  takes  the  shape  of  faith 
and  love,  is  as  little  the  end  of  God's  revelation  as  is 
knowledge.  He  makes  Himself  known  to  ns  in  all  the 
greatness  of  His  grace  and  love  in  Jesns  Christ,  not  that 
we  may  know,  and  there  an  end,  nor  even  that  knowing, 
we  may  feel,  and  there  an  end,  though  a  great  many 
emotional  Christians  seem  to  think  that  is  all  ;  but  that 
knowing,  we  may  feel,  -and  knowing  and  feeling,  we 
may  be  and  do  what  He  would  have  us  do  and  be. 
We  have  the  great  river  flowing  past  our  doors.  It  is 
not  only  intended  that  we  should  fill  our  cisterns  by 
knowledge,  nor  only  bathe  our  parched  lips  by  faith  and 
love,  but  that  we  should  use  it  to  drive  all  the  wheels  of 
the  mill  of  life.  Not  he  that  understands,  nor  he  that 
glows,  but  he  that  does,  is  the  man  that  holds  fast  the 
pattern  of  sound,  health-giving  words. 

The  world  is  like  that  five-porched  pool  in  which  were 
gathered  a  great  multitude  of  sick  folks.  Its  name  is  the 
"  House  of  Mercy,"  for  so  Bethesda  means,  tragically  as 
the  title  seems  to  be  contradicted  by  the  condition  of  the 
cripples  and  diseased  lying  there.  But  this  fountain 
once  moved  gushes  up  for  ever  ;  and  whosoever  will 
may  step  into  it,  and  immediately  be  made  whole  of 
whatsoever  disease  he  has. 


TRUE    GREATNESS. 

"  He  shall  be  great  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord." — Lukh  i.  15. 

80  spake  the  angel  who  foretold  the  birth  of  John  the 
Baptist.  "  In  the  sight  of  the  Lord " — then  men 
are  not  on  a  dead  level  in  His  eyes.  Though  He  is  so 
high  and  we  are  so  low,  the  country  beneath  Him  that 
He  looks  down  upon  is  not  flattened  to  Him,  as  it  is  to 
us  from  an  elevation,  but  there  are  greater  and  smaller 
men  in  His  sight,  too.  No  epithet  is  more  misused  and 
misapplied  than  that  of  "a  great  man."  It  is  flung 
about  indiscriminately  as  ribbons  and  orders  are  by  some 
petty  State.  Every  little  man  that  makes  a  noise  for 
awhile  gets  it  hung  round  his  neck.  Think  what  a  set 
they  are  that  are  gathered  in  the  world's  Valhalla,  and 
honoured  as  the  world's  great  men !  The  mass  of  people 
are  so  much  on  a  level,  and  that  level  is  so  low,  that  an 
inch  above  the  average  looks  gigantic.  But  the  tallest 
blade  of  grass  gets  mown  down  by  the  scythe,  and 
withers  as  quickly  as  the  rest  of  its  green  companions, 
and  goes  its  way  into  the  oven  as  surely.  There  is  the 
world's  false  estimate  of  greatness  and  there  is  God's 
estimate.  If  we  want  to  know  what  the  elements  of 
true  greatness  are,  we  may  well  turn  to  the  life  of  this 
man,  of  whom  the  prophecy  went  before  him  thiat  he 

236 


TRUE   GREATNESS.  237 

should  be  "  great  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord."     That  is 
gold  til  at  will  stand  the  test. 

We  may  remember,  too,  that  Jesus  Christ,  looking 
back  on  the  career  to  which  the  angel  was  looking 
forward,  endorsed  the  prophecy  and  declared  that  it  had 
become  a  fact,  and  that  "of  them  that  were  born  of 
woman  there  had  not  arisen  a  greater  than  John  the 
Baptist."  With  the  illumination  of  His  eulogium  we 
may  turn  to  this  life,  then,  and  gather  some  lessons  for 
our  own  guidance. 

I.  First,  we  note  in  John  unwavering  and  immovable 
firmness  and  courage. 

"  What  went  ye  out  into  the  wilderness  for  to  see  ? 
A  reed  shaken  with  the  wind  ? "  Nay  1  an  iron  pillar 
that  stood  firm  whatsoever  winds  blew  against  it. 
This,  as  I  take  it,  is  in  some  true  sense  the  basis  of 
all  moral  greatness — that  a  man  should  have  a  grip 
which  cannot  be  loosened,  like  that  of  the  cuttle-fish 
with  all  its  tentacles  round  its  prey,  upon  the  truths 
that  dominate  his  being  and  make  him  a  hero.  "  If  you 
want  me  to  weep,"  said  the  old  artist-poet,  "  there  must 
be  tears  in  your  own  eyes."  If  you  want  me  to  believe, 
you  yourself  must  be  aflame  with  conviction  which  has 
penetrated  to  the  very  marrow  of  your  bones.  And  so, 
as  I  take  it,  the  first  requisite  either  for  power  upon 
others,  or  for  greatness  in  a  man's  own  development  of 
character,  is  that  there  shall  be  this  unwavering  firmness 
of  grasp  of  clearly-apprehended  truths,  and  unflinching 
boldness  of  devotion  to  them. 

I  need  not  remind  you  how  magnificently,  all  through 
the  life  of  our  typical  example,  this  quality  was  stamped 
upon  every  utterance  and  every  act.    It  reached  its  climax, 


238  TRUE   GREATNESS. 

no  doubt,  in  his  bearding  Herod  and  Herodias.  But 
moral  characteristics  do  not  reach  a  climax  unless  there 
has  been  much  underground  building  to  bear  the  lofty 
pinnacle;  and  no  man,  when  great  occasions  come  to 
him,  develops  a  courage  and  an  unwavering  confidence 
which  are  strange  to  his  habitual  life.  There  must  be 
the  underground  building  ;  and  there  must  have  been 
many  a  fighting  down  of  fears,  many  a  curbing  of  tremors, 
many  a  rebuke  of  hesitations  and  doubts  in  the  gaunt, 
desert-loving  prophet,  before  he  was  man  enough  to 
stand  before  Herod  and  say,  "  It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to 
have  her." 

No  doubt  there  is  much  to  be  laid  to  the  account  of 
temperament,  but  whatever  their  temperament  may  be, 
the  way  to  this  unwavering  courage,  and  firn:\,  clear 
ring  of  indubitable  certainty,  is  open  to  every  Christian 
man  and  woman  ;  and  it  is  their  own  fault,  their  own 
sin,  and  their  own  weakness,  if  they  do  not  possess 
these  qualities.  Temperament  I  What  on  earth  is  the 
good  of  our  religion  if  it  is  not  to  modify  and  govern  our 
temperament  ?  Has  a  man  a  right  to  jib  on  one  side, 
and  give  up  the  attempt  to  clear  the  fence,  because  he 
feels  that  in  his  own  natural  disposition  there  is  little 
power  to  take  the  leap  ?  Surely  not.  Jesus  Christ  came 
here  for  the  very  purpose  of  making  our  weakness  strong, 
and  if  we  have  a  firm  hold  upon  Him,  then,  in  tbe  measure 
in  which  His  love  has  permeated  our  whole  nature,  will 
be  our  unwavering  courage,  and  out  of  weakness  we 
shall  be  made  strong. 

Of  course  the  highest  type  of  this  undaunted  boldness 
and  unwavering  firmness  of  conviction  is  not  in  John 
and  his  like.     He  presented  strength  in  a  lower  form 


TRUE   GREATNESS.  239 

than  did  the  Master  from  whom  his  strength  came. 
The  willow  has  a  beauty  as  well  as  the  oak.  Firmness 
is  not  obstinacy  ;  courage  is  not  rudeness.  It  is  possible 
to  have  the  iron  hand  in  the  velvet  glove,  not  of 
etiquette-observing  politeness,  but  of  a  true  consider- 
ateness  and  gentleness.  They  who  are  likest  Him  that 
was  "  meek  and  lowly  in  heart "  are  surest  to  possess 
the  unflinching  resolve,  which  set  His  face  like  a  flint, 
and  enabled  Him  to  go  unhesitatingly  and  unrecalcitrant 
to  the  Cross  itself. 

Do  not  let  us  forget,  either,  that  John's  unwavering 
firmness  wavered  ;  that  over  the  clear  heaven  of  his 
convictions  there  did  steal  a  cloud ;  that  he  from  whom 
no  violence  could  wrench  his  faith  felt  it  slipping  out  of 
his  grasp  when  his  muscles  were  relaxed  in  the  dungeon  ; 
and  that  he  sent  "  from  the  prison  " — which  was  the 
excuse  for  the  message — to  ask  the  question,  After  all, 
art  Thou  He  that  should  come  ? 

Nor  let  us  forget  that  it  was  that  very  moment  of 
tremulousness  which  Jesus  Christ  seized,  in  order  to 
pour  an  unstinted  flood  of  praise  for  the  firmness  of  his 
convictions,  on  the  wavering  head  of  the  Forerunner. 
So,  if  we  feel  that  though  the  needle  of  our  compass 
points  true  to  the  pole,  yet  when  the  compass -frame  is 
shaken,  the  needle  sometimes  vibrates  away  from  its  true 
direction,  do  not  let  us  be  cast  down,  but  believe  that  a 
merciful  allowance  is  made  for  human  weakness.  This 
man  was  great ;  first,  because  he  had  such  dauntless 
courage  and  firmness  that,  over  his  headless  corpse  in 
the  dungeon  at  Machaerus,  might  have  been  spoken  what 
the  Regent  Murray  said  over  John  Knox's  coffin,  "  Here 
lies  one  that  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 


240  TRUE   GREATNESS. 

II.  Another  element  of  true  greatness  that  comes 
nobly  out  in  the  life  with  which  I  am  dealing  is  its  clear 
elevation  above  worldly  good. 

That  was  the  second  point  that  our  Lord's  eulogium 
signalised.  "  What  went  ye  out  into  the  wilderness  for 
to  see  ?  A  man  clothed  in  soft  raiment  ?  "  But  you 
would  have  gone  to  a  palace,  if  you  had  wanted  to  see 
that,  not  to  the  reed-beds  of  Jordan.  As  we  all  know, 
in  his  life,  in  his  dress,  in  his  food,  in  the  aims  that 
he  set  before  him,  he  rose  high  above  all  regard  for  the 
debasing  and  perishable  sweetnesses  that  appeal  to  flesh, 
and  are  ended  in  time.  He  lived  conspicuously  for  the 
Unseen.  His  asceticism  belonged  to  his  age,  and  was 
not  the  highest  type  of  the  virtue  which  it  expressed. 
As  I  have  said  about  his  courage,  so  I  say  about  his 
self-denial — Christ's  is  of  a  higher  sort.  As  the  might  of 
gentleness  is  greater  than  the  might  of  such  strength  as 
John's,  80  the  asceticism  of  John  is  lower  than  the  self- 
government  of  the  Man  that  came  eating  and  driniiing. 

But  whilst  that  is  true,  I  seek,  dear  brethren,  to  urge 
this  old  threadbare  lesson,  always  needed,  never  needed 
more  than  amidst  the  senselessly  luxurious  habits  of 
this  generation,  needed  in  few  places  more  than  in  a 
great  commercial  centre  like  that  in  which  we  live,  that 
one  indispensable  element  of  true  greatness  and  elevation 
of  character  is  that,  not  the  prophet  and  the  preacher 
alone,  but  every  one  of  us,  should  live  high  above  these 
temptations  of  gross  and  perishable  joys,  should 

"Scorn  delights  and  Uve  laborious  days," 
No  man  has  a  right  to  be  called  "  great "  if  his  aims 
are  small.    And  the  question  is,  not  as  modern  idolatry 
of  intellect,  or,  still  worse,  modern  idolatry  of  success, 


TRUE   GREATNESS.  241 

often  makes  it  out  to  be,  has  he  great  capacities  ?  or  has 
he  won  great  prizes?  but,  has  he  greatly  used  himself 
and  his  life  ?  If  yonr  aims  are  small  you  will  never  be 
great  ;  and  if  j'our  highest  aims  are  but  to  get  a  good 
slice  of  this  world's  pudding — no  matter  what  powers 
God  may  have  given  you  to  use— you  are  essentially  a 
small  man. 

I  remember  a  vigorous  and  contemptuous  illustration 
of  St.  Bernard's,  who  likens  a  man  that  lives  for  these 
perishable  delights  which  John  spurned,  to  a  spider 
spinning  a  web  out  of  his  own  substance,  and  catching 
in  it  nothing  but  a  wretched  prey  of  poor  little  flies. 
Such  a  one  has  surely  no  right  to  be  called  a  great  man. 
Our  aims  rather  than  our  capacity  determine  our 
character,  and  they  who  greatly  aspire  after  the  greatest 
things  within  the  reach  of  men,  which  are  faith,  hope, 
charity,  and  who,  for  the  sake  of  effecting  these  aspira- 
tions, put  their  heels  upon  the  head  of  the  serpent  and 
suppress  the  animal  in  their  nature,  these  are  the  men 
"  great  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord." 

III.  Another  element  of  true  greatness,  taught  us  by 
our  type,  is  fiery  enthusiasm  for  righteousness. 

You  may  think  that  that  has  little  to  do  with  great- 
ness. I  believe  it  has  everything  to  do  with  it,  and  that 
the  difference  between  men  is  very  largely  to  be  found 
here,  whether  they  flame  up  into  the  white  heat  of 
enthusiasm  for  the  things  that  are  right,  or  whether 
the  only  things  that  can  kindle  them  into  anything  like 
earnestness  and  emotion  are  the  poor,  shabby  things  ol 
personal  advantage.  I  need  not  remind  you  how,  all 
through  John's  career,  there  burnt  unflickering  and 
undying  that  steadfast  light ;  how  he  brought  to  the 

16 


242  TBUB   GKEATNB8S. 

service  of  the  plainest  teaching  of  morality  a  fervonr  of 
passion  and  of  zeal  almost  miexampled  and  magnificent. 
I  need  not  remind  you  how  Jesus  Christ  Himself  laid 
His  hand  upon  this  characteristic,  when  He  said  of  him 
that  "  he  was  a  light  kindled  and  shining."  But  I  would 
lay  upon  all  our  hearts  the  plain,  practical  lesson  that, 
if  we  keep  in  that  tepid  region  of  lukewarmness  which 
is  the  utmost  approach  to  tropical  heat  that  moral  and 
religious  questions  are  capable  of  raising  in  many  of 
us,  good-bye  to  all  chance  of  being  "  great  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord."  "  We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  blessings 
of  moderation,"  the  "  dangers  of  fanaticism,"  and  the 
like.  I  venture  to  think  that  the  last  thing  which  the 
moral  consciousness  of  England  wants  to-day  is  a  refri- 
gerator, and  that  what  it  needs  a  great  deal  more  than 
that  is,  that  all  Christian  people  should  be  brought  face 
to  face  with  this  plain  truth — that  their  religion  has, 
as  an  indispensable  part  of  it,  "  a  spirit  of  burning," 
and  that  if  they  have  not  been  baptised  in  fire,  there  is 
little  reason  to  believe  that  they  have  been  baptised 
with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

I  long  that  you  and  myself  may  be  aflame  for  good- 
ness, may  be  enthusiastic  over  plain  morality,  and 
may  show  that  we  are  so  by  our  daily  life,  by  our 
rebuking  the  opposite,  if  need  be,  even  if  it  took  us  into 
Herod's  chamber,  and  made  Herodias  our  enemy  for  life. 

IV.  Lastly,  observe  the  final  element  of  greatness  in 
this  man — absolute  humility  of  self-abnegation  before 
Jesus  Christ. 

There  is  nothing  that  I  know  in  biography  anywhere 
more  beautiful,  more  striking,  than  the  contrast  between 
the  two  halves  of  the  character  and  demeanour  of  the 


TRUE   QKEATNESS.  243 

Baptist ;  how,  on  the  one  side,  he  fronts  all  men  un- 
daunted and  recognises  no  superior,  and  how  neither 
threats  nor  flatteries  nor  anything  else  will  tempt  him 
to  step  one  inch  beyond  the  limitations  of  which  he  is 
aware,  nor  to  abate  one  inch  of  the  claims  which  he 
urges  J  and,  on  the  other  hand,  like  some  tall  cedar, 
touched  by  the  lightning's  hand,  he  falls  prone  before 
Jesus  Christ  and  says,  "  He  must  increase,  and  I  must 
decrease  :  "  "a  man  can  receive  nothing  except  it  be 
given  him  of  God."  He  is  all  boldness  on  one  side  ; 
all  submission  and  dependence  on  the  other. 

You  remember  how,  in  the  face  of  many  temptations, 
that  attitude  was  maintained  The  very  message  which 
he  had  to  carry  was  full  of  temptations  to  a  self-seeking 
man  to  assert  himself.  You  remember  the  almost 
rough  "  No  1 "  with  which,  reiteratedly,  he  met  the 
suggestions  of  the  deputation  from  Jerusalem,  that 
sought  to  induce  him  to  say  that  he  was  more  than 
he  knew  himself  to  be,  and  how  he  stuck  by  that 
infinitely  humble  and  beautiful  saying,  "I  am  a  voice " 
— that  is  all.  You  remember  how  the  whole  nation  was 
in  a  kind  of  conspiracy  to  tempt  him  to  assert  himself, 
and  was  ready  to  break  into  a  flame,  if  he  had  dropped 
a  spark,  for  "  all  men  were  musing  in  their  heart  whether 
he  was  the  Christ  or  not,"  and  all  the  lawless  and 
restless  elements  would  have  been  only  too  glad  to 
gather  round  him,  if  he  had  declared  himself  the 
Messiah.  Remember  how  his  own  disciples  came  to 
him,  and  tried  to  play  upon  his  jealousy  and  to  induce 
him  to  assert  himself :  "  Master,  He  whom  thou  didst 
baptize," — and  so  didst  give  Him  the  first  credentials 
that  sent  men  on  His  course, — has  outstripped  thee,  and 


244  TEUE   GREATNESS. 

•  all  men  are  coming  to  Him."  And  you  remember 
the  lovely  answer  that  opened  snch  depths  of  unexpected 
tenderness  in  the  rough  nature  :  "  He  that  hath  the 
bride  is  the  bridegroom  :  the  friend  of  the  bridegroom 
heareth  the  voice ;  and  that  is  enough  to  fill  my  cup 
with  joy  to  the  very  brim." 

And  what  conceptions  of  Jesus  Christ  had  John,  that 
he  thus  bowed  his  lofty  crest  before  Him,  and  softened 
his  heart  into  submission  almost  abject  ?  He  knew  Him 
to  be  the  coming  Judge,  with  the  fan  in  His  hand,  who 
could  baptise  with  fire,  and  he  knew  Him  to  be  "  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
Therefore  he  fell  before  Him. 

Brethren,  we  shall  not  be  "  great  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord"  unless  we  copy  that  example  of  utter  self- 
abnegation  before  Jesas  Christ.  Thomas  k  Kempis  says 
somewhere,  "He  is  truly  great  who  is  small  in  his  own 
sight,  and  thinks  nothing  of  the  giddy  heights  of  worldly 
honour."  You  and  I  know  far  more  of  Jesus  Christ 
than  John  the  Baptist  did.  Do  we  bow  ourselves  before 
Him  as  he  did?  The  Source  from  which  he  drew  his 
greatness  is  open  to  us  all. 

Let  us  begin  with  the  recognition  of  the  Lamb  of  God 
that  takes  away  the  world's  sin,  and  with  it  ours.  Let 
the  thought  of  what  He  is,  and  what  He  has  done  for 
us,  bow  us  in  unfeigned  submission.  Let  it  shatter  all 
dreams  of  our  own  importance  or  our  own  desert.  The 
vision  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  it  only,  will  crush  in 
our  hearts  the  serpent's  eggs  of  self-esteem  and  self- 
regard. 

Then,  let  our  closeness  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  our  expe- 
rience of  ffis  power,  kindle  in  us  the  fiery  enthusiasm 


TKUB   GREATNESS.  245 

with  which  He  baptises  all  His  true  servants,  and  let  it, 
because  we  know  the  sweetnesses  that  excel,  deprive  ns 
of  all  liability  to  be  tempted  away  by  the  vnlgar  and 
coarse  delights  of  earth  and  of  sense.  Let  us  keep 
ourselves  clear  of  the  babble  that  is  round  about  us,  and 
be  strong  because  we  grasp  Christ's  hand, 

I  have  been  speaking  about  no  characteristic  which 
may  not  be  attained  by  any  man,  woman,  or  child 
amongst  us.  "  The  least  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  " 
may  be  greater  than  John.  It  is  a  poor  ambition  to  seek 
to  be  called  "  great."  It  is  a  noble  desire  to  he  "  great 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord."  And  if  we  will  keep  ourselves 
close  to  Jesus  Christ  that  will  be  attained.  It  will 
matter  very  little  what  men  think  of  us,  if  at  last  we  have 
praise  from  the  lips  of  Him  who  poured  such  praise  on 
His  servant.  We  may,  if  we  will.  And  then  it  will 
not  hurt  us  though  our  names  on  earth  be  dark  and 
our  memories  perish  from  among  men. 

"  Of  so  much  fame  in  heaven  expect  the  meed." 


GREATNESS    IN    THE    KINGDOM. 

"He  that  is  least  in  the  kingdom  of  God  is  greater  than  he."— 
LuKJi  vii.  28. 

WE  were  speaking  in  the  preceding  sermon  about  the 
elements  of  true  greatness,  as  represented  in  the 
life  and  character  of  John  the  Baptist.  As  we  remarked 
then,  our  Lord  poured  unstinted  euloginm  upon  the 
head  of  John,  in  the  audience  of  the  people,  at  the 
very  moment  when  he  showed  himself  weakest.  "  None 
born  of  women  "  were,  in  Christ's  eyes,  "  greater  than 
John  the  Baptist."  The  eulogium,  authoritative  as  it 
was,  was  immediately  followed  by  a  depreciation  as 
authoritative,  from  Christ's  lips  :  "  The  least  in  the 
kingdom  is  greater  than  he."  Greatness  depends,  not 
on  character,  but  on  position.  The  contrast  that  is 
drawn  is  between  being  in  and  being  out  of  the  kingdom. 
And  this  man,  great  as  he  was  among  them  "  that 
are  born  of  women,"  stood  but  upon  the  threshold. 
Therefore,  and  only  therefore,  and  in  that  respect,  was 
he  "  less  than  the  least "  who  was  safely  in. 

Now,  there  are  two  things  to  notice  by  way  of 
introduction,  in  these  great  words  of  the  Lord's.  One 
is  the  calm  assumption  which  He  makes  of  authority 
to  marshal  men,  to  stand  above  the  greatest  of  them. 

21G 


QBEATNESS  IN  THE  KINGDOM.  247 

and  to  allocate  their  places,  because  He  knows  all  about 
them  ;  and  the  other  is  the  equally  calm  and  strange 
assumption  of  authority  which  He  makes,  in  declaring 
that  the  least  within  the  kingdom  is  greater  than  the 
greatest  without.  For  the  kingdom  is  embodied  in 
Him,  its  King,  and  He  claimed  to  have  opened  the 
door  of  entrance  into  it.  "  The  Kingdom  of  God,"  or 
of  heaven — an  old  Jewish  idea — means,  whatever  else 
it  means,  an  order  of  things  in  which  the  will  of  God 
is  supreme.  Jesus  Christ  says,  "  I  have  come  to  make 
that  real  reign  of  God,  in  the  hearts  of  men,  possible 
and  actual."  So  He  presents  Himself  in  these  words 
as  infinitely  higher  than  the  greatest  within,  or  the 
greatest  without,  the  kingdom,  and  as  being  Himself  the 
sovereign  arbiter  of  men's  claims  to  greatness.  Greater 
than  the  greatest  is  He,  the  King ;  for  if  to  be  barely 
across  the  threshold  stamps  dignity  upon  a  man,  what 
shall  we  say  of  the  conception  of  His  own  dignity  which 
He  formed  who  declared  that  He  sat  on  the  throne 
of  that  kingdom,  and  was  its  Monarch  ? 

L  The  first  thought  that  I  suggest  is  the  greatness 
of  the  little  ones  in  the  kingdom. 

As  I  have  said,  our  Lord  puts  the  whole  emphasis 
of  His  classification  on  men's  position.  Inside  all  are 
great,  greater  than  any  that  are  outside.  The  least  in 
the  one  order  is  greater  than  the  greatest  in  the  other. 
So,  then,  the  question  comes,  How  does  a  man  stej 
across  that  threshold?  Our  Lord  evidently  means  the 
expression  to  be  synonymous  with  His  true  disciples. 
We  may  avail  ourselves,  in  considering  how  men  comi 
to  be  in  the  kingdom,  of  His  own  words.  Once  He  said 
that  unless  we  received  it  as  little  children,  we  should 


248  GEEATNESS  IN  THE  KINGDOM. 

never  be  tvithin  it.  There  the  blending  of  the  tw^ 
metaphors  adds  force  and  completeness  to  the  thought 

he  kingdom  is  without  ns,  and  is  offered  to  us  ;  we 
must  receive  it  as  a  gift,  and  it  must  come  into  us 
before  we  can  be  in  it.  The  point  of  comparison  between 
the  recipients  of  the  kingdom  and  little  children  does 
not  lie  in  any  sentimental  illusions  about  the  innocence 
of  childhood,  but  in  its  dependence,  in  its  absence  of 
pretension,  in  its  sense  of  clinging  helplessness,  in  its 
instinctive  trust.  All  these  things  in  the  child  are 
natural,  spontaneous,  unreflecting,  and  therefore  of  no 
value.  You  and  I  have  to  think  ourselves  back  to  them, 
and  to  work  ourselves  back  to  them,  and  to  fight  our- 
selves back  to  them,  and  to  strip  off  their  opposites 
which  gather  round  us  in  the  course  of  our  busy,  effortful 
life.  Then  they  become  worth  infinitely  more  than 
their  instinctive  analogues  in  the  infant.  The  man's 
absence  of  pretension  and  consciousness  of  helplessness 
and  dependent  trust  are  beautiful  and  great,  and  through 
them  the  Kingdom  of  God,  with  all  its  lights  and  glories, 
pours  into  his  heart,  and  he  himself  steps  into  it, 
and  becomes  a  true  servant  and  subject  of  the  King. 

Then  there  is  another  word  of  the  Master's,  equally 
illuminative,  as  to  how  we  pass  into  the  kingdom,  when 
He  said  to  the  somewhat  patronising  Pharisee  that  came 
to  talk  to  Him  by  night,  and  condescended  to  give  the 
young  Eabbi  a  certificate  of  approval  from  the  Sanhedrim, 
'^'  We  know  that  Thou  art  a  Teacher  come  from  God." 
Christ's  answer  was,  in  effect,  "  Knowing  will  not  serve 
your  turn.  There  is  something  more  than  that  wanted  : 
'  except  a  man  be  born  of  water,  and  of  the  Spirit,  he 
cannot  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God.' "     So,  another 


CiliEATNESS   IN   THE   KINQDUM  24ii 

ondition  of  entering  the  kingdom — that  is,  of  coming 
ibr  myself  into  the  attitude  of  lowly,  glad  submission  to 
God's  will — is  the  reception  into  our  natures  of  a  new 
life-principle,  so  that  we  are  not  only,  like  the  men  whom 
Christ  compared  with  John,  "  born  of  women,"  but  by 
a  higher  birth  are  made  partakers  of  a  higher  life,  and 
born  of  "  the  Spirit  of  God."  These  are  the  conditions  : 
on  our  side  the  reception  with  humility,  helplessness, 
dependent  trust  like  those  of  children ;  on  God's  side 
the  imparting,  in  answer  to  that  dependence  and  trust, 
of  a  higher  principle  of  life  ; — these  are  the  conditions 
on  which  we  can  pass  out  of  the  realm  of  darkness  into 
the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  His  love. 

This  being  so,  then  we  come  to  consider  the  greatness 
chat  belongs  to  the  least  of  those  who  thus  have  crossed 
the  threshold,  and  come  to  exercise  joyous  submission  to 
the  will  of  God.  The  highest  dignity  of  human  nature, 
the  loftiest  nobility  of  which  it  is  capable,  is  to  submit 
to  God's  will.  "  Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God." 
There  is  nothing  that  leads  life  to  such  sovereign  power 
as  when  we  lay  all  our  will  at  His  feet,  and  say,  "  Break, 
bend,  mould,  fashion  it  as  Thou  wilt."  We  are  in  a 
higher  position  when  we  are  in  God's  hand.  His  tools 
and  the  pawns  on  His  board,  than  we  are  when  we  are 

eeking  to  govern  our  lives  at  our  pleasure.  Dignity 
comes  from  submission,  and  they  who  keep  God's  com- 
mandments are  the  aristocracy  of  the  world. 

Then,  further,  there  comes  the  thought  that  the  great- 
ness that  belongs  to  the  least  of  the  little  ones  within 
the  kingdom  springs  from  their  closer  relation  to  the 
Saviour,  whose  work  they  more  clearly  know  and  more 
fully  appropriate.     It  is  often  said  that  the  Sunday-school 


250  GRBATNBSS  m  THE  KINGDOM. 

child  that  can  repeat  the  great  text,  "  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life,"  stands  far  above  prophet,  righteous 
man,  and  John  himself.  This  is  not  exactly  true,  for 
knowledge  of  the  truth  is  not  what  introduces  into  the 
kingdom  ;  but  it  is  true  that  the  weakest,  the  humblest, 
the  most  ignorant  amongst  us,  who  grasps  that  truth  of 
the  God-sent  Son  whose  death  is  the  world's  life,  and 
who  lives,  therefore,  nestling  close  to  Jesus  Christ,  walks 
in  a  light  far  brighter  than  the  twilight  that  shone  upon 
the  Baptist,  or  the  yet  dimmer  rays  that  reached  prophets 
and  righteous  men  of  old.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
character  ;  it  is  a  question  of  position.  True  greatness 
is  regulated  by  closeness  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  ap- 
prehension and  appropriation  of  His  work  to  myself. 
The  dwarf  on  the  shoulders  of  the  giant  sees  further 
than  the  giant ;  and  "  the  least  in  the  kingdom,"  being 
nearer  to  Jesus  Christ  than  the  men  of  old  could  ever  be, 
because  possessing  the  fuller  revelation  of  God  in  Him, 
is  greater  than  the  greatest  without.  They  who  possess, 
even  in  germ,  that  new  life-principle,  which  comes  in  the 
measure  of  a  man's  faith  in  Christ,  thereby  are  lifted 
above  saints  and  martyrs  and  prophets  of  old.  The 
humblest  Christian  grasps  a  fuller  Christ,  and  therein 
possesses  a  fuller  spiritual  life,  than  did  the  ancient 
heroes  of  the  faith.  Christ's  classification  here  says 
nothing  about  individual  character.  It  says  nothing 
about  the  question  as  to  the  possession  of  true  religion 
or  of  spiritual  life  by  the  ancient  saints,  but  it  simply 
declares  that  because  we  have  a  completer  revelation,  we 
therefore,  grasping  that  revelation,  are  in  a  more  blessed 


GREATNESS  IN  THE  KINGDOM.  251 

position,  "  God  having  provided  some  better  thing  for 
us,  that  they  without  ns  should  not  be  made  perfect." 
The  lowest  in  a  higher  order  is  higher  than  the  highest 
in  a  lower  order.  As  the  geologist  digs  down  through 
the  strata,  and,  as  he  marks  the  introduction  of  new 
types,  declares  that  the  lowest  specimen  of  the  mammalia 
is  higher  than  the  highest  preceding  of  the  reptiles  or  of 
the  birds,  so  Christ  says,  "  he  that  is  lowest  in  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  is  greater  than  he." 

Brethren,  these  thoughts  should  stimulate  and  should 
rebuke  us  that  having  so  much  we  make  so  little  use  of  it. 
We  know  God  more  fully,  and  have  mightier  motives  to 
serve  Him,  and  larger  spiritual  helps  in  serving  Him, 
than  had  any  of  the  mighty  men  of  old.  We  have  a 
fuller  revelation  than  Abraham  had  ;  have  we  a  tithe 
of  his  faith  ?  We  have  a  mightier  Captain  of  the  Lord's 
host  with  us  than  stood  before  Joshua ;  have  we  any  of 
his  courage  ?  We  have  a  tenderer  and  fuller  revelation 
of  the  Father  than  had  psalmists  of  old  ;  are  our  aspira- 
tions greater  after  God,  whom  we  know  so  much  better, 
than  were  theirs  in  the  twilight  of  revelation  ?  A 
savage  with  a  shell  and  a  knife  of  bone  will  make  delicate 
carvings  that  put  our  workers,  with  their  modern  tools, 
to  shame.  A  Hindoo,  weaving  in  a  shed,  with  bamboos 
for  its  walls  and  palm-leaves  for  its  roof,  and  a  rough 
loom,  the  same  as  his  ancestors  used  three  thousand 
years  ago,  will  turn  out  muslins  that  Oldham  machinery 
cannot  rival.  We  are  exalted  in  position,  let  us  see 
to  it  that  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  all  the 
saints,  do  not  put  us  to  shame,  lest  the  greatest  should 
become  the  guiltiest,  and  exaltation  to  heaven  should 
kad  to  dejection  to  hell. 


252  OKEATis'ESb    IN    IHE    KINGDOM. 

II.  Notice  the  littleness  of  the  great  ones  in  the 
kingdom. 

Our  Lord  here  recognises  the  fact  that  there  will  be 
varieties  of  position,' that  there  will  be  an  outer  and  an 
inner  court  in  the  Temple,  and  an  aristocracy  in  the 
kingdom.  "  In  a  great  house  there  are  not  only  vessels 
of  gold  and  silver,  but  of  wood  and  of  clay."  When 
a  man  passes  into  the  territory,  it  still  remains  an  open 
question  how  far  into  the  blessed  depths  of  the  land 
he  will  penetrate.  Or,  to  put  away  the  figure,  if  as 
Christian  people  we  have  laid  hold  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
in  Him  have  received  the  kingdom  and  the  new  life-power, 
there  still  remains  the  question,  how  much  and  how 
faithfully  we  shall  utilise  the  gifts,  and  what  place  in 
the  earthly  experience  and  manifestation  of  His  kingdom 
we  shall  occupy.     There  are  great  and  small  within  it. 

So  it  comes  to  be  a  very  important  question  for  us  all, 
how  we  may  not  merely  be  content,  as  so  many  of  us 
are,  with  having  scraped  inside  and  just  got  both  feet 
across  the  boundary  line,  but  may  become  great  in 
the  kingdom.  Let  me  answer  that  question  in  three 
sentences.  The  little  ones  in  Christ's  kingdom  become 
great  by  the  continual  exercise  of  the  same  things 
which  admitted  them  there  at  first.  If  greatness  depends 
on  position  in  reference  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  closer  we 
come  to  Him  and  the  more  we  keep  ourselves  in  loving 
touch  and  fellowship  with  Him,  the  greater  in  the 
kingdom  we  shall  be.  Again,  the  little  ones  in  Christ's 
kingdom  become  great  by  self-forgetting  service.  "  He 
that  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister." 
Self-regard  dwarfs  a  man,  self-oblivion  magnifies  him. 
If  ever  you  come  across,  even  in  the  walks  of  daily  life, 


GKEATNESS  IN  THE  KINGbOM.  253 

traces  in  people  of  thinking  mncli  of  themselves,  and 
of  living  mainly  for  themselves,  down  go  these  men  in 
yonr  estimation  at  once.  Whether  you  have  a  beam 
of  the  same  sort  in  your  eye  or  not,  you  can  see  the  mote 
in  theirs,  and  you  lower  your  appreciation  of  them  immedi- 
ately. It  is  the  same  in  Christ's  kingdom,  only  in  an 
infinitely  loftier  fashion.  There,  to  become  small  is  to 
become  great.  Again,  the  little  ones  in  Christ's  kingdom 
become  great,  not  only  by  cleaving  close  to  the  source 
of  all  greatness,  and  deriving  thence  a  higher  dignity 
by  the  suppression  and  crucifixion  of  self-esteem  and 
self-regard,  but  by  continual  obedience  to  their  Lord's 
commandment.  As  He  said  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  "  Whoso  shall  do  and  teach  one  of  the  least 
of  these  commandments  shall  be  called  great  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  The  higher  we  are,  the  more  we 
are  bound  to  punctilious  obedience  to  the  smallest 
injunction.  The  more  we  are  obedient  to  the  lightest 
of  His  commandments,  the  greater  we  become.  Thus 
the  least  in  the  kingdom  may  become  the  greatest  there, 
if  only,  cleaving  close  to  Christ,  he  forgets  himself, 
and  lives  for  others,  and  does  the  Father's  will. 

III.  Lastly,  I  travel  for  a  moment  beyond  my  text, 
and  note  the  perfect  greatness  of  all  in  the  perfected 
kingdom. 

The  very  notion  of  a  Kingdom  of  God  established 
in  reality,  however  imperfectly  here  on  earth,  demands 
that  somewhere,  and  some  time,  and  somehow,  there 
should  be  an  adequate,  a  universal  and  an  eternal 
manifestation  and  establishment  of  it.  If,  here  and 
now,  dotted  about  over  the  world,  there  are  men  who, 
with  much  hindrance  and  many  breaks  in  their  obedience, 


254  al:KAT^'ESS  in  the  kingdom. 

are  still  the  subjects  of  that  realm,  and  trying  to  do 
the  Will  of  God,  unless  we  are  reduced  to  utter 
bewilderment  intellectually,  there  must  be  a  region  in 
which  that  Will  shall  be  perfectly  done,  shall  be  con- 
tinually done,  shall  be  universally  done.  The  obedience 
that  we  render  to  Him,  just  because  it  is  broken  by 
so  much  rebellion,  slackened  by  so  much  indiiference, 
hindered  by  so  many  clogs,  hampered  by  so  many 
limitations,  points,  by  its  attainments  and  its  imperfections 
alike,  to  a  region  where  the  clogs  and  limitations  and 
interruptions  shall  have  all  vanished,  and  the  Will  of 
the  Lord  shall  be  the  life  and  the  light  thereof. 

So  there  rises  up  before  us  the  fair  prospect  of  that 
heavenly  kingdom,  in  which  all  that  here  is  interrupted 
and  thwarted  tendency  shall  have  become  realised 
eflfect. 

That  state  must  necessarily  be  a  state  of  continual 
advance.  For  if  greatness  consists  in  apprehension  and 
appropriation  of  Christ  and  His  work,  there  are  no 
limits  to  the  possible  expansion  and  assimilation  of  a 
human  heart  to  Him,  and  the  wealth  of  His  glory  is 
absolutely  boundless.  An  infinite  Christ  to  be  assimi- 
lated, and  an  indefinite  capacity  of  assimilation  in  us, 
make  the  guarantee  that  eternity  shall  see  the  growing 
progress  of  the  subjects  of  the  kingdom,  in  resemblance 
to  the  King. 

If  there  is  this  endless  progress,  which  is  the  only 
notion  of  heaven  that  clothes  with  joy  and  peace  the 
awful  thought  of  unending  existence,  then  there  will  be 
degrees  there  too,  and  the  old  distinction  of  "  least "  and 
" greatest"  in  the  kingdom  will  subsist  to  the  end.  The 
army  marches   onwards,  but  they  are  not  all  abreast 


GREATNESS    IN    THE   KINGDOM.  Jii)5 

They  that  are  in  front  do  not  intercept  any  of  the 
blessings  or  of  the  light  that  come  to  the  rearmost  files  ; 
and  they  that  are  behind  are  advancing,  and  envy  not 
those  who  lead  the  march. 

Only  let  us  remember,  brother,  that  the  distinction  oi 
least  and  great  in  the  kingdom,  in  its  imperfect  forms 
on  earth,  is  carried  onwards  into  the  kingdom  in 
its  perfect  form  into  heaven.  The  highest  point  of 
our  attainment  here  is  the  starting-point  of  our  pro- 
gress yonder.  "  An  entrance  shall  be  ministered  ;  "  it 
may  be  "  ministered  abundantly,"  or  we  may  be  "  saved 
yet  so  as  by  fire."  Let  us  see  to  it  that,  being  least  in 
our  own  eyes,  we  belong  to  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom. 
And,  that  we  may,  let  us  hold  fast  by  the  source  of  all 
greatness,  Christ  Himself,  and  so  we  shall  be  launched 
on  a  career  of  growing  greatness  through  the  ages  of 
eternity.  To  be  joined  to  Him  is  greatness,  however 
small  the  world  may  think  us.  To  be  separate  from 
Him  is  to  be  small,  though  the  hosannas  of  the  world 
may  misname  us  great. 


"THE    MATTER    OF    A    DAY    IN    ITS    DAY." 

••  At  all  times,  as  the  matter  shall  require." — 1  Kings  viii.  59. 

1HAVE  ventured  to  diverge  from  my  usual  custom, 
and  take  this  fragment  of  a  text  because,  in  the 
forcible  language  of  the  original,  it  carries  some  very 
important  lessons.  The  margin  of  our  Bible  gives  the 
literal  reading  of  the  Hebrew  ;  the  sense,  but  not  the 
vigorous  idiom,  of  which  is  conveyed  in  the  paraphrase 
in  our  version.  "At  all  times,  as  the  matter  shall 
require,"  is,  literally,  "  the  thing  of  a  day  in  its  day  "  ; 
and  that  is  the  only  limitation  which  this  prayer  of 
Solomon  places  upon  the  petition  that  God  would  main- 
tain the  cause  of  His  servants  and  of  His  people  Israel. 
The  kingly  suppliant  got  a  glimpse  of  very  great,  though 
very  familiar,  truths,  and  at  that  hour  of  spiritual  illum- 
ination, the  very  high-water  mark  of  his  relations  to 
God — for  I  suppose  he  was  never  half  as  good  a  man 
afterwards — he  gave  utterance  to  the  great  thought  that 
God's  mercies  come  to  us  day  by  day,  according  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  moment. 

Now,  I  think  in  the  words  "  the  matter  of  a  day  in 
its  day"  we  may  see  both  a  principle  in  reference  to 
God's  gifts  and  a  precept  in  reference  to  our  actions. 
Just  let  us  look  at  these  two  things. 

256 


"the   matter  of  ▲  DAT  IN   ITS   DAT."  357 

L    A  principle  in  reference  to  God's  gifts. 

Of  course,  obviously — and  I  need  not  say  more  than 
a  word  about  that — we  find  it  so  in  regard  to  the  out- 
ward blessings  that  are  poured  into  our  lives.  We  are 
taught,  if  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament  is 
correct,  to  ask,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  and 
to  let  to-morrow  alone.  Life  comes  to  us  pulsation  by 
pulsation,  breath  by  breath,  by  reason  of  the  continual 
operation,  in  the  material  world,  of  the  present  God's 
present  giving.  He  does  not  start  us,  at  the  beginning 
of  our  days,  with  a  fund  of  physical  vitality  upon  which 
we  thereafter  draw,  but  moment  by  moment  He  opens 
His  hand,  and  lets  life  and  breath  and  all  things  flow  out 
to  us  moment  by  moment,  so  that  no  creature  would 
live  for  an  instant  except  for  the  present  working  of  a 
present  God.  If  we  only  realised  how  the  slow  pulsa- 
tion of  the  minutes  is  due  to  the  touch  of  His  finger  on 
the  pendulum,  and  how  everything  that  we  have,  and 
the  existence  of  us  who  have  it,  are  results  of  the 
continuous  welling  out  from  the  fountain  of  life,  of  ripple 
after  ripple  of  the  waters,  everything  would  be  sacreder, 
and  solemner,  and  fuller  of  God  than,  alas  !  it  is. 

But  the  true  region  in  which  we  may  best  find  illus- 
trations of  this  principle  in  reference  to  God's  gifts  is 
the  region  of  the  spiritual  and  moral  bestowments  that 
He  in  His  love  pours  upon  us.  He  does  not  flood  us 
with  them  ;  He  filters  them  drop  by  drop,  for  great  and 
good  reasons.  I  only  mention  three  various  forms  of 
this  one  great  thought. 

God  gives  us  gifts  adapted  to  the  moment.  "  The 
matter  of  a  day,"  the  thing  fitted  for  the  instant,  comes. 
In  deepest  reality,  it  is  all  one  gift,  for  in  truth  what 

17 


258  "  THE   MATTER   OF  A   DAT  IN  ITS   DAT.** 

God  gives  to  ns  is  Himself ;  or,  if  you  like  to  put  it  so, 
His  grace.  That  little  word  "  grace "  is  like  a  small 
window  that  opens  out  on  to  a  great  landscape,  for  it 
gathers  up  into  one  encyclopaedical  expression  the  whole 
infinite  variety  of  beneficences  and  bestowments  which 
come  showering  down  upon  us.  That  one  gift  is,  as  the 
Apostle  puts  it  in  one  of  his  eloquent  epithets,  "  the 
manifold  grace  of  God,"  which  word  in  the  original  is 
even  more  rich  and  picturesque,  because  it  means  the 
"many-variegated  grace" — like  some  rich  piece  of 
embroidery  glowing  with  all  manner  of  dyes  and  gold. 
So  the  one  gift  comes  to  us  manifold,  rich  in  its 
adaptation  to,  and  its  exquisite  fitness  for  the  needs  of 
the  moment.  The  rabbis  had  a  tradition  that  the 
manna  in  the  wilderness  tasted  to  every  man  just  what 
each  man  needed  or  wished  most.  You  might  go  into 
some  imperial  city  on  a  day  of  rejoicing,  and  find  a 
fountain  in  the  market-place  pouring  out,  according  to 
the  wish  of  the  people,  various  costly  wines  and  refresh- 
ing drinks.  God's  gift  comes  to  us  with  like  variety — 
the  "  matter  of  the  day  in  its  day." 

He  never  gives  us  the  wrong  medicine.  Whatever 
variety  of  circumstances  we  stand  in,  there,  in  that  one 
infinitely  simple  and  yet  infinitely  complex  gift,  is  what 
we  specially  want  at  the  moment.  Am  I  struggling  ? 
He  extends  a  hand  to  steady  me.  Am  I  fighting  ?  He 
is  my  "  sword  and  shield,  my  buckler,  and  the  horn  of 
my  salvation,  and  my  high  tower."  Am  I  anxious  ? 
He  comes  into  my  heart,  and  brings  with  Him  a  great 
peace,  and  all  waves  cease  to  toss,  and  smooth  themselves 
into  a  level  plain.  Am  I  glad  ?  He  comes  to  heighten 
the  gladness  by  some  touch  of  holier  joy.    Am  I  per- 


"the  matter   of  a   DAT  IN  ITS   DAT."  259 

plexed  in  mind  ?  If  I  look  to  Him,  "  His  coming  shall 
be  as  the  morning,"  and  illumination  will  be  granted. 
Am  I  treading  a  lonely  path  ?  There  is  One  by  my  side 
who  will  neither  change,  nor  fail,  nor  die.  Whatever  any 
man  needs,  at  the  moment  that  he  needs  it  that  one 
great  Gift  shall  supply  "  the  matter  of  a  day  in  its  day." 

God  gives  punctually.  Many  of  us  may  have  some- 
times sent  Christmas  presents  to  India  or  Australia  some 
weeks  before.  Some  will  arrive  in  time  and  some  will 
be  too  late.  God's  gifts  never  reach  us  before  the  day, 
and  they  never  come  after  the  day.  "The  Lord  shall 
help  her,  and  that  right  early,"  said  the  grand  psalm. 
What  the  psalmist  was  thinking  about  was,  I  suppose,  that 
miraculous  intervention  when  the  army  of  Sennacherib 
was  smitten  in  a  night.  Timid  and  faithless  souls  in 
Jerusalem,  as  they  looked  over  the  walls  and  saw  the 
encircling  lines  of  the  fierce  foes  drawing  closer  and 
closer  round  the  doomed  city,  must  have  said,  "  Our 
Lord  delay eth  His  coming,"  and  could  not  stand  the  test 
of  their  faith  and  patience,  involved  in  God's  apparent 
indifference  to  the  need  of  His  people.  To-morrow  the 
assault  is  to  be  delivered.  To-night  "  the  Angel  of  Death 
spread  his  wings  on  the  blast.  And  breathed  on  the  face 
of  the  foe  as  he  passed  "  ;  and  the  would-be  assailants, 
when  that  to-morrow  dawned,  were  lying  stiff  and  stark 
in  their  tents.  God's  help  comes,  not  too  soon,  lest  we 
should  not  know  the  blessedness  of  trusting  in  the  dark  ; 
and  not  too  late,  lest  we  should  know  the  misery  of 
trusting  in  vain. 

Peter  is  lying  in  prison.  Herod  intends,  after  the 
Passover,  to  bring  him  out  to  the  people.  The  scaffold- 
ing is  ready.    The  first  watch  of  the  night  passes,  and 


260  "  THE   MATTER   OF  A   DAY   IN   ITS    DAY." 

the  second.  If  once  it  is  fairly  light,  escape  is  impossible. 
But  in  the  grey  dawn  the  angel  touches  the  sleeper.  He 
wakes  while  his  guards  sleep.  There  is  no  need  for 
hurry.  He  who  has  God  for  his  deliverer  has  no  occa- 
sion to  "  go  out  with  haste."  So,  with  strange  and  majestic 
leisureliness,  the  escaping  prisoner  is  bid  to  put  on  his 
shoes  and  gird  himself.  No  doubt,  he  cast  many  a 
scrutinising  glance  at  the  four  sleeping  legionaries  whom 
a  heedless  movement  might  have  wakened.  When  all 
is  ready,  he  is  led  forth  through  all  the  wards,  each 
being  a  separate  peril,  and  all  made  safe  to  him.  The 
first  gate  opens,  and  the  second  gate  opens,  and  the  iron 
gate  that  leads  into  the  city  opens,  and  quietly  he  and 
the  angel  go  down  the  street.  It  is  light  enough  for 
him  to  see  his  way  to  the  house  where  the  brethren  are 
assembled.  He  gets  safe  behind  Mary's  door  before  it 
is  light  enough  for  the  gaolers  to  discover  his  absence, 
and  the  pursuers  to  be  started  in  their  search.  The 
Lord  did  help  him,  and  that  right  early — "the  matter 
of  a  day  in  its  day." 

We  shall  find,  if  we  leave  our  times  in  His  hand,  that 
the  old  simple  faith  has  yet  a  talismanic  power  to  quiet 
us.  His  time  is  best,  so  be  patient,  and  be  trustful  in 
your  patience. 

Again,  God  gives  gifts  enough,  and  not  more  than 
enough.  He  serves  out  our  rations  for  spirit  as  for 
body,  as  they  do  on  ship-board,  where  the  sailors  have  to 
take  their  pots  and  plates  to  the  galley  every  day  and 
every  meal,  and  get  enough  to  help  them  over  the 
moment's  hunger.  The  manna  fell  morning  by  morning. 
"  He  that  gathered  much  had  nothing  over,  he  that 
gathered  little  had  no  lack."     So  all  the  variety  of  our 


"the   matter   of   a    DAT   IN   ITS    DAY."  261 

changefnl  conditions,  besides  its  purpose  of  disciplining 
ourselves  and  of  making  character,  has  also  the  purpose 
of  affording  a  theatre  for  the  display,  if  I  may  use  such 
cold  language — or  rather  let  me  say  affording  an  op- 
portunity for  the  bestowment — of  the  infinitely  varied, 
exquisitely  adapted,  punctual,  and  sufficient  grace  of  God. 

II.  But  now,  secondly,  a  word  about  the  text  as 
containing  a  precept  for  our  action. 

Let  me  put  what  I  have  to  say  in  three  plain  sentences. 
First,  take  short  views  of  the  future. 

Of  course,  we  have  to  look  ahead,  and  in  reference  to 
many  things  to  take  prudent  forecasts,  but  how  many  of 
us  there  are  who  weaken  ourselves  and  spoil  to-day  by 
being  "  over-exquisite  to  cast  the  fashion  of  uncertain 
evils  I  "  It  is  a  great  piece  of  practical  philosophy,  and  I 
am  sure  it  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  our  getting  the 
best  out  of  the  present  moment,  that  we  should  either 
take  very  short  or  very  long  views  of  the  future.    Either 

"Let  the  unknown  to-morrow 
Bring  with  it  what  it  may," 

or  look  beyond  the  last  of  the  days  into  the  unseen  light 
of  an  unsetting  sun.  If  I  must  anticipate,  let  me  antici- 
pate the  ultimate,  the  changeless,  the  certain  ;  and  let 
me  not  condemn  my  faculty  of  picturing  that  which  is  to 
come,  to  look  along  the  low  ranges  of  earthly  life,  and 
torture  myself  by  imagining  all  the  possibilities  of  evil 
that  my  condition  admits  of,  as  being  turned  into  cer- 
tainties to-morrow.  Take  the  matter  of  a  day  in  its 
day.  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof."  Let 
us  make  the  minute  what  it  ought  to  be  ;  God  will 
make  the  whole  what  it  ought  to  be. 


262         "the  mattek  of  a  day  in  its  day." 

Again  I  say,  let  us  fill  each  day  with  discharged 
duties.  If  you  and  I  do  not  do  the  matter  of  the  day  in 
its  day,  the  chances  are  that  no  to-morrow  will  afford  an 
opportunity  of  doing  it.  So  there  will  come  upon  us  all, 
if  we  are  unfaithful  to  this  portioning  out  of  tasks  to 
times,  that  burden  of  an  irrevocable  past,  and  of  the 
omitted  duties  that  will  stand  reproving  and  condemning 
before  us,  whensoever  we  turn  our  eyes  to  them.  "  It 
might  have  been,  and  it  is  not "  ;  does  a  sadder  speech 
than  that  fall  from  human  lips  ?  Brethren,  the  day, 
though  it  is  short,  is  elastic  ;  and  nobody  knows  how 
much  of  discharged  service  and  accomplished  tasks  and 
fulfilled  responsibilities  can  be  crammed  into  its  hours, 
until  he  has  earnestly  tried  to  fill  each  moment  with 
the  task  which  belongs  to  the  moment.  "  The  sluggard 
will  not  plough  by  reason  of  the  cold  ;  therefore  shall 
he  beg  in  harvest  and  have  nothing."  If  our  day  is 
not  filled  full  of  work,  some  to-morrow  will  be  filled  full, 
in  retrospect,  of  thorns  and  stings.  Life  is  short ;  the 
night  Cometh  when  no  man  can  work.  "  I  must  work 
the  works  of  Him  that  sent  me  while  it  is  day." 

Lastly,  I  would  say,  keep  open  a  continual  communion 
with  God,  that  day  by  day  you  may  get  what  day  by  day 
you  need.  There  are  hosts  of  people  who  call  them- 
selves, and,  in  some  kind  of  surface  way,  are.  Christian 
people,  who  seem  to  think  that  they  get  all  that  they 
need  of  the  grace  of  God  in  a  lump,  at  the  beginning 
of  their  Christian  career,  and  who  are  living  upon  past 
communications  and  the  memory  of  these,  and  are  for- 
getting that  they  can  no  more  live  and  be  nourished 
upon  past  gifts  of  God's  grace  than  upon  the  dinner  that 
they  ate  this  day  last  year.     We  must  hang  continually 


"the  matter  of  a  day  in  its  day."         263 

upon  HiDi,  if  we  are  continually  to  receive  from  His 
hand.     No  past  blessing  will  avail  for  present  use. 

Dear  friends,  the  purpose  of  this  principle,  which  I 
have  been  trying  to  illustrate  in  God's  way  of  dealing 
with  us,  is  that  we  shall  be  content  to  be  continually 
dependent,  and  consciously  as  well  as  continually  de- 
pendent, upon  Him.  In  the  measure  in  which  we  keep 
our  hearts  open  for  the  perpetual  influx  of  His  grace, 
in  that  measure  shall  we  be  ready  for  each  day  as  it 
comes  ;  for  its  trials  and  its  joys,  for  its  possibilities 
and  its  duties. 

This,  too,  must  be  remembered — that  the  days  bolted 
together  make  months  ;  and  the  months,  years  ;  and  the 
years,  life  ;  and  that  life  as  a  whole  is  "a  day";  and 
that  there  is  a  matter  of  that  day  which  can  only  be 
done  in  its  day.  Oh  that  none  of  us  may  be  the 
subjects  of  that  sad  wail  from  a  Saviour's  heart  and  a 
Saviour's  lips,  which  lamented,  "  If  thou  hadst  known, 
at  least,  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  that  belong  to  thy 
peace  ;  but  now  " — the  night  has  come,  and  the  darkness 
of  the  night  and — "  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes  1 " 


THE    FOUNDER    AND    FINISHER    OF    THE 
TEMPLE. 

"  The  hands  of  Zembbabel  have  laid  the  foondation  of  this  house ; 
his  hands  shall  also  finish  it." — Zboh.  iv.  9. 

I  AM  afraid  that  Zembbabel  is  very  little  more  than 
a  grotesque  name  to  most  Bible-readers  ;  so  I  may 
be  allowed  a  word  of  explanation  as  to  him  and  as  to 
the  original  force  of  my  text.  He  was  a  prince  of  the 
blood  royal  of  Israel,  and  the  civil  leader  of  the  first 
detachment  of  returning  exiles.  With  Joshua,  the  high 
priest,  he  came,  at  the  head  of  a  little  company,  to 
Palestine,  and  there  pathetically  attempted  with  small 
resources,  to  build  up  some  humble  house  that  might 
represent  the  vanished  glories  of  Solomon's  Temple. 
Political  enmity  on  the  part  of  the  surrounding  tribes 
stopped  the  work  for  nearly  twenty  years.  During  all 
that  time,  the  hole  in  the  ground  where  the  foundations 
had  been  dug,  and  a  few  courses  of  stones  laid,  gaped 
desolate,  a  sad  reminder  to  the  feeble  band  of  the  failure 
of  their  hopes.  But  with  the  accession  of  a  new  Persian 
king,  new  energy  sprang  up,  and  new,  favourable  circum- 
stances developed  themselves.  The  prophet  Zechariah 
came  to  the  front,  although  quite  a  young  man,  and 
became  the  mainspring  of  the  renewed  activity  in  building 
the  temple.    The  words  of  my  text  are,  of  coarBe,  in 

264 


THE    FOUNDER   AND    FINISHER   OF  THE   TEMPLE.      26t) 

their  plain,  original  meaning,  the  prophetic  assurance 
that  the  man,  grown  an  old  man  by  this  time,  who 
had  been  honoured  to  take  the  first  spadeful  of  soil  out 
of  the  earth  should  be  the  man  "to  bring  forth  the 
headstone  with  shoutings  of  Grace,  grace  unto  it  I  " 

But  whilst  that  is  the  original  application,  and  whilst 
the  words  open  to  us  a  little  door  into  long  years  of 
constrained  suspension  of  work  and  discouraged  hope,^ 
I  think  we  shall  not  be  wrong,  if  we  recognise  in  them 
something  deeper  than  a  reference  to  the  prince  of 
David's  line,  concerning  whom  they  were  originally 
spoken.  I  take  them  to  be,  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
term,  a  Messianic  prophecy ;  and  I  take  it  that,  just 
because  Zerubbabel,  a  member  of  that  royal  house  from 
which  the  Messiah  was  to  come,  was  the  builder  of 
the  temple,  he  was  a  prophetic  person.  What  was  true 
about  him  primarily  is  thereby  shown  to  have  a  bearing 
upon  the  greater  Son  of  David  who  was  to  come 
thereafter,  and  who  was  to  build  the  Temple  of  the  Lord. 
In  that  aspect  I  desire  to  look  at  the  words  now  :  "  His 
hands  have  laid  the  foundation  of  the  house,  and  His 
hands  shall  also  finish  it." 

I.  There  is,  then,  here  a  large  truth  as  to  Christ,  the 
true  Temple-builder. 

It  is  the  same  blessed  message  which  was  given  from 
His  own  lips  long  centuries  after,  when  He  spoke  from 
heaven  to  John  in  Patmos,  and  said,  "  I  am  Alpha 
and  Omega,  the  First  and  the  Last."  The  first  letter 
of  the  Greek  alphabet,  and  the  last  letter  of  the  Greek 
alphabet,  and  all  the  letters  that  lie  between,  and  all 
the  words  that  you  can  make  out  of  the  letters — they 
are  all  from  Him,  and  He  underlies  everything 


26(3       THE    FOUNDER    AND    FINISHER    OF   THE    TEMPLE. 

Now  that  is  true  about  creation,  in  the  broadest  and 
in  the  most  absolute  sense.  For  what  does  the  New 
Testament  say,  with  the  consenting  voice  of  all  its 
writers  ?  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  Without 
Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made."  His 
hands  laid  the  foundations  of  this  great  house  of  the 
universe,  with  its  '•  many  mansions."  And  what  says 
Paul  ?  "  He  is  the  beginning,  in  Him  all  things 
consist " — "  that  in  all  things  He  might  have  the  pre- 
eminence." And  what  says  He,  Himself,  from  heaven  ? 
"  I  am  the  First  and  the  Last."  So,  in  regard  of  every- 
thing in  the  universe,  Christ  is  its  origin,  and  Christ 
is  its  goal  and  its  end.  He  "has  laid  the  foundation, 
and  His  hands  shall  also  finish  it." 

But,  further,  we  turn  to  the  application  which  is  the 
more  usual  one,  and  say  that  He  is  the  beginner  and 
finisher  of  the  work  of  redemption,  which  is  His  only 
from  its  inception  to  its  accomplishment,  from  the  first 
breaking  of  the  ground  for  the  foundations  of  the  Temple 
to  the  triumphant  bringing  forth  of  the  last  stone  that 
crowns  the  corner  and  gleams  on  the  topmost  pinnacle 
of  the  completed  structure.  There  is  nothing  about 
Jesus  Christ,  as  it  seems  to  me,  more  manifest,  unless 
our  eyes  are  blinded  by  prejudice,  than  that  the  Carpenter 
of  Nazareth,  who  grew  up  amidst  the  ordinary  conditions 
of  infant  manhood,  was  trained  as  other  Jewish  children, 
increased  in  wisdom,  spoke  a  language  that  had  been 
moulded  by  man,  and  inherited  His  nation's  mental  and 
spiritual  equipment,  yet  stands  forth  on  the  pages  of 
these  four  Gospels  as  a  perfectly  original  man,  to  put 
it  on  the  lowest  ground,  and  as  owing  nothing  to  any 


THE  FOUNDER  AND  FINISHER  OF  THE  TEMPLE.      267 

predecessor,  and  not  as  merely  one  in  a  series,  or 
naturally  accounted  for  by  reference  to  His  epoch  or 
conditions.  He  makes  a  new  beginning  ;  He  presents  a 
perfectly  fresh  thing  in  the  history  of  human  nature. 
Just  as  His  coming  was  the  introduction  into  the  heart 
of  humanity  of  a  new  type,  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord 
from  heaven,  so  the  work  that  He  does  is  all  His  own. 
He  does  it  all  Himself,  for  all  that  His  servants  do  in 
carrying  out  the  purposes  dear  to  His  heart  is  done  by 
His  working  in  and  through  them,  and,  though  we  are 
fellow-labourers  with  Him,  His  hands  alone  lay  every 
stone  of  the  Temple. 

Not  only  does  my  text,  in  its  highest  application, 
point  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  author  of  redemption  from 
its  very  beginning,  but  it  also  declares  that  all  through 
the  ages  His  hand  is  at  work.  "  Shall  also  finish  it " — 
then  He  is  labouring  at  it  now ;  and  we  have  not  to  think 
of  a  Christ  who  once  worked,  and  has  left  to  us  the  task 
of  developing  the  consequences  of  His  completed  activity, 
but  of  a  Christ  who  is  working  on  and  on,  steadily  and 
persistently.  The  builders  of  some  great  edifice,  whilst 
they  are  laying  its  lower  courses,  are  down  upon  our 
level,  and  as  the  building  rises  the  scaffolding  rises,  and 
sometimes  the  platform  where  they  stand  is  screened 
off  by  some  frail  canvas  stretched  round  it,  so  that 
we  cannot  see  them  as  they  ply  their  work  with  trowel 
and  mortar.  So  Christ  came  down  to  earth  to  lay  the 
courses  of  His  Temple  that  had  to  rest  upon  earth,  but 
now  the  scafi'olding  is  raised  and  He  is  working  at  the 
top  stories.  Though  out  of  our  sight,  He  is  at  work 
as  truly  and  energetically  as  He  was  when  He  was 
down  here.    You  remember  how  strikingly  one  of  the 


268      THE   FOUNDER   AND   FINISHER   OF   THE   TEMPLE. 

Evangelists  puts  that  thought  in  the  last  words  of  his 
Gospel — if,  indeed  they  are  his  words.  ''  He  was  re- 
ceived np  into  heaven,  and  sat  at  the  right  hand  of 
God.  They  went  everywhere,  preaching  the  word." 
Well,  that  looks  as  if  there  was  a  sad  separation  be- 
tween the  Commander  and  the  soldiers  that  He  had 
ordered  to  the  front,  as  if  He  was  sitting  at  ease,  on 
a  hill  overlooking  the  battle-field  from  a  safe  distance 
and  sending  His  men  to  death.  But  the  next  words 
bring  Him  and  them  together — "  the  Lord  also  work- 
ing with  them,  and  confirming  the  word  with  signs 
following."  And  so,  brethren,  a  work  begun,  continued, 
and  ended  by  the  same  immortal  hand,  is  the  work  on 
which  the  redemption  of  the  world  depends. 

II.  Notice,  secondly,  that  we  have  here  the  assurance 
of  the  triumph  of  the  Gospel. 

No  doubt,  in  the  long-forgotten  days  in  which  my 
text  was  spoken,  there  were  plenty  of  over-prudent 
calculators  in  the  little  band  of  exiles  who  said,  "  What 
is  the  use  of  our  trying  to  build  in  face  of  all  this 
opposition  and  with  these  poor  resources  of  ours  ? " 
They  would  throw  cold  water  enough  on  the  works 
of  Zerubbabel,  and  on  Zechariah  who  inspired  them, 
But  there  came  the  great  word  of  promise  to  them, 
"  He  shall  bring  forth  the  headstone  with  shoutings." 
The  text  is  the  cure  for  all  such  calculations  by  us 
Christian  people,  and  by  others  than  Christian  people. 
When  we  begin  to  count  up  resources,  and  to  measure 
these  against  the  work  to  be  done,  there  is  little  wonder 
if  good  men  and  bad  men  sometimes  concur  in  thinking 
that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  has  very  little  chance 
of  conquering  the  world.     And  that  is  perfectly  true, 


THE  FOUNDER   AND   FINISHER   OF  THE    TEMPLE.      269 

unless  you  take  Him  into  the  calculation,  and  then  the 
probabilities  look  altogether  different.  We  are  but  like 
a  long  row  of  cyphers,  but  put  one  significant  figure 
in  front  of  the  row  of  cyphers  and  it  comes  to  be 
of  value.  And  so,  if  you  are  calculating  the  proba- 
bilities of  the  success  of  Christianity  in  the  world  and 
forget  to  start  with  Christ,  you  have  left  out  the 
principal  factor  in  the  problem.  Churches  lose  their 
fervour,  their  members  die  and  pass  away.  He  renews 
and  purifies  the  corrupted  Church,  and  He  liveth  for 
ever.  Therefore,  because  we  may  say,  with  calm  con- 
fidence, "His  hands  have  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
house,  and  His  hands  are  at  work  on  all  the  courses 
of  it  as  it  rises,"  we  may  be  perfectly  sure  that  the 
Temple  which  He  founded,  at  which  He  still  toils,  shall 
be  completed,  and  not  stand  a  gaunt  ruin,  looking  on 
which  passers-by  will  mockingly  say,  "  This  man  began 
to  build  and  was  not  able  to  finish."  When  Brennus 
conquered  Rome,  and  the  gold  for  the  city's  ransom 
was  being  weighed,  he  clashed  his  sword  into  the  scale 
to  outweigh  the  gold.  Christ's  sword  is  in  the  scale, 
and  it  weighs  more  than  the  antagonism  of  the  world 
and  the  active  hostility  of  hell.  "  His  hands  have  laid 
the  foundation  ;  His  hands  shall  also  finish  it." 

III.  Still  further,  here  is  encouragement  for  de- 
spondent and  timid  Christians. 

Jesus  Christ  is  not  going  to  leave  you  half  way  across 
the  bog.  That  is  not  His  manner  of  guiding  us.  He 
began  ;  He  will  finish.  Remember  the  words  of  Paul 
which  catch  up  this  same  thought :  "  Being  confident 
of  this  very  thing,  that  He  which  hath  begun  a  good 
work  in   you  will   perfect   the   same   until  the  day  of 


270      THB   FOUNDBK   AND   FINISHER   OF  THE   TEMPLE. 

Jesus  Christ."  Brethren,  if  the  seed  of  the  kingdom 
is  in  our  hearts,  though  it  be  but  as  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed,  be  sure  of  this,  that  He  will  watch  over  it  and 
bless  the  springing  thereof.  So,  although  when  we 
think  of  ourselves,  our  own  slowness  of  progress,  our 
own  feeble  resolutions,  our  own  wayward  hearts,  our 
own  vacillating  wills,  our  many  temptations,  our  many 
corruptions,  our  many  follies,  we  may  well  say  to 
ourselves,  "  Will  there  ever  be  any  greater  completeness 
in  this  terribly  imperfect  Christian  character  of  mine 
than  there  is  to-day  ? "  let  us  be  of  good  cheer,  and 
not  think  only  of  ourselves,  but  much  rather  of  Him  who 
works  on  and  in  and  for  us.  If  we  lift  up  our  hearts  to 
Him,  and  keep  ourselves  near  Him,  and  let  Him  work. 
He  will  work.  If  we  do  not — like  the  demons  in  the 
old  monastic  stories,  who  every  night  pulled  down  the 
bit  of  walling  that  the  monks  had  in  the  daytime  built 
for  their  new  monastery — by  our  own  hands  pull  down 
what  He,  by  His  hand,  has  built  up,  the  structure  will 
rise,  and  we  shall  be  "  builded  together  for  a  habitation 
of  God  through  the  Spirit."  Be  of  good  cheer,  only 
keep  near  the  Master,  and  let  Him  do  what  He  desires 
to  do  for  us  all.  God  is  "  faithful  who  hath  called  us 
to  the  fellowship  of  His  Son,"  and  He  also  will  do  it. 

IV.  Lastly,  here  is  a  striking  contrast  to  the  fate 
which  attends  all  human  workers. 

There  are  very  few  of  us  who  even  partially  seem  to 
oe  happy  enough  to  begin  and  finish  any  task,  beyond 
the  small  ones  of  our  daily  life.  Authors  die,  with  half- 
finished  books,  with  half-finished  sentences  sometimes, 
where  the  pen  has  been  laid  down.  No  man  starts  an 
entirely  fresh  line  of  action  ;  he  inherits  much  from  his 


THH   FOUNDER   AND   FINISHER   OF   THE   TEMPLE.      271 

past.  No  man  completes  a  great  work  that  he  under- 
takes ;  he  leaves  it  half-finished,  and  coming  generations, 
if  it  is  one  of  the  great  historical  works  of  the  world, 
work  out  its  consequences  for  good  or  for  evil.  The 
originator  has  to  be  contented  with  setting  the  thing 
going  and  handing  on  unfinished  tasks  to  his  successors. 
That  is  the  condition  under  which  we  live.  We  have 
to  be  contented  to  do  our  little  bit  of  work,  that  will  fit 
in  along  with  that  of  a  great  many  others,  like  a  chain 
of  men  who  stand  between  a  river  and  a  burning  house, 
and  pass  the  buckets  from  end  to  end.  How  many 
hands  does  it  take  to  make  a  pin  ?  How  many  did  it 
take  to  make  the  cloth  of  our  dress  ?  The  shepherd  out 
in  Australia,  the  packer  in  Melbourne,  the  sailors  on  the 
ship  that  brought  the  wool  home,  the  railway  men  that 
took  it  to  Bradford,  the  spinner,  the  weaver,  the  dyer, 
the  finisher,  the  tailor — they  all  had  a  hand  in  it,  and 
the  share  of  none  of  them  was  fit  to  stand  upright  by 
itself,  as  it  were,  without  something  on  either  side  of 
it  to  hold  it  up. 

So  it  is  in  all  our  work  in  the  world,  and  eminently 
in  our  Christian  work.  We  have  to  be  contented  with 
being  parts  of  a  mighty  whole,  to  do  our  small  piece  of 
service,  and  not  to  mind  though  it  cannot  be  singled  out 
in  the  completed  whole.  What  does  that  matter,  as 
long  as  it  is  there  ?  The  waters  of  the  brook  are  lost 
in  the  river,  and  it,  in  turn,  in  the  sea.  But  each  drop 
is  there,  though  indistinguishable. 

Multiplication  of  joy  comes  from  division  of  labour. 
"  One  soweth  and  another  reapeth,"  and  the  result  is 
that  there  are  two  to  be  glad  over  the  harvest  instead  of 
one — "that  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth  may 


272      THE   FOUNDER   AND   FINISHER   OF   THE   TEMPLB. 

rejoice  together."  So  it  is  a  good  thing  that  the  hands 
that  laid  the  foundations  so  seldom  are  the  hands  that 
finish  the  work  ;  for  thereby  there  are  more  admitted 
into  the  social  gladness  of  the  completed  results.  The 
navvy  that  lifted  the  first  spadeful  of  earth  in  excavating 
for  the  railway  line,  and  the  driver  of  the  locomotive 
over  the  completed  track,  are  partners  in  the  success 
and  in  the  joy.  The  forgotten  bishop  who,  I  know  not 
how  many  centuries  ago,  laid  the  foundations  of  Cologne 
Cathedral,  and  the  workmen  who,  a  few  years  since, 
took  down  the  old  crane  that  had  stood  for  long  years  on 
the  spire,  and  completed  it  to  the  slender  apex,  were 
partners  in  one  work  that  reaches  through  the  ages. 
So  let  us  do  our  little  bit  of  work,  and  remember  that 
whilst  we  do  it.  He  for  whom  we  are  doing  it  is  doing 
it  in  us,  and  let  us  rejoice  to  know  that  at  the  last  we 
shall  share  in  the  "joy  of  our  Lord,"  when  He  sees 
of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  is  satisfied.  Though  He 
builds  all  Himself,  yet  He  will  let  us  have  the  joy  of 
feeling  that  we  are  labourers  together  with  Him.  "  Ye 
are  God's  building";  but  the  Builder  permits  us  to 
share  in  His  task  and  in  ffis  triumph. 


PETER'S  DELIVERANCE   FROM   PRISON. 

•'Peter  therefore  was  kept  in  prison :  bat  prayer  was  made  eamestlj 
of  the  Church  unto  God  for  him." — Acts  xii  B. 

THE  narrative  of  Peter's  miraculous  deliverance  from 
prison  is  full  of  little  vivid  touches  which  can  only 
have  come  from  himself.  The  whole  tone  of  it  reminds 
us  of  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Mark,  which  is  in  like 
manner  stamped  with  peculiar  minuteness  and  abundance 
of  detail.  One  remembers  that  at  a  late  period  in  the 
life  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  Mark  and  Luke  were  together 
with  him ;  and  no  doubt  in  those  days  in  Rome,  Mark, 
who  had  been  Peter's  special  companion  and  is  called 
by  one  of  the  old  Christian  writers  his  "  interpreter," 
was  busy  in  telling  Luke  the  details  about  Peter  which 
appear  in  the  first  part  of  this  book  of  the  Acts. 

The  whole  story  seems  to  me  to  be  full  of  instruction 
as  well  as  of  picturesque  detail  ;  and  I  desire  to  bring 
out  the  various  lessons  which  appear  to  me  to  lie  in  it. 

I.  The  first  of  them  is  this  ;  the  strength  of  the 
helpless. 

Look  at  that  eloquent  "  but "  in  the  verse  that  I  have 
taken  as  a  starting-point :  "  Peter  therefore  was  kept 
in  the  prison,  but  prayer  was  made  without  ceasing  of 
the  Church  unto  God  for  him."  There  is  another 
similarly  eloquent  "  but "  at  the  end   of  chapter  the : 

273  18 


274  i-eter's  deliverance  feom  prison. 

"  Herod  .  .  .  was  eaten  of  worms,  and  gave  up  the 
ghost,  but  the  Word  of  God  grew  and  multiplied." 
Here  you  get,  on  the  one  hand,  all  the  pompous  and 
elaborate  preparations — "  four  quaternions  of  soldiers  " 
— four  times  four  is  sixteen — sixteen  soldiers,  two 
chains,  three  gates  with  guards  at  each  of  them,  Herod's 
grim  determination,  the  people's  malicious  expectation 
of  having  an  execution  as  a  pleasant  sensation  to  wind 
up  the  Passover  Feast  with.  And  what  had  the  handful 
of  Christian  people  ?  Well,  they  had  prayer  ;  and  they 
had  Jesus  Christ.  That  was  all,  and  that  is  more  than 
enough.  How  ridiculous  all  the  preparation  looks 
when  you  let  the  light  of  that  great  "  but  "  in  upon  it ! 
Prayer,  "  earnest  prayer,  was  made  of  the  Church  unto 
God  for  him."  And  evidently,  from  the  place  in  which 
that  fact  is  stated,  it  is  intended  that  we  should  say  to 
ourselves  that  it  was  because  prayer  was  made  for  him 
that  what  came  to  pass  did  come  to  pass.  It  is  not 
jerked  out  as  an  unconnected  incident  \  it  is  set  in  a 
logical  sequence.  "  Prayer  was  made  without  ceasing 
of  the  Church  unto  God  for  him  " — and  so  when  Herod 
would  have  brought  him  forth,  behold,  the  angel  of 
the  Lord  came,  and  the  light  shined  into  the  prison. 
It  is  the  same  sequence  of  thought  that  occurs  in  that 
grand  theophany  in  the  eighteenth  Psalm,  "  My  cry 
entered  into  His  ears ;  then  the  earth  shook  and 
trembled  ; "  and  there  came  all  the  magnificence  of  the 
thunderstorm,  and  the  earthquake,  and  the  Divine 
manifestation  ;  and  this  was  the  purpose  of  it  all — 
"  He  sent  from  above,  He  took  me.  He  drew  me  out  of 
many  waters."  The  whole  energy  of  the  Divine  nature 
is  set  in  motion,  and  comes  swooping  down  from  highest 


Peter's  deliverance  from  prison.  275 

heaven  to  the  tremblino^  earth.  And  of  that  fact  the 
one  end  is  one  poor  man's  cry,  and  the  other  end  is  his 
deliverance.  The  moving  spring  of  the  Divine  mani- 
festation was  an  individual's  prayer ;  the  aim  of  it  was 
the  individual's  deliverance.  A  teaspoonful  of  water 
is  put  into  a  hydraulic  ram  at  one  point,  and  the  out- 
come is  the  lifting  of  tons.  So  the  helpless  men  that 
can  only  pray  are  stronger  than  Herod  and  his 
quaternions  and  his  chains  and  his  gates.  "  Prayer 
was  made,"  therefore  all  that  happened  was  brought  to 
pass,  and  Peter  was  delivered. 

Peter's  companion,  James,  was  killed  off,  as  we  read 
in  a  verse  or  two  before.  Did  not  the  Church  pray  for 
him  ?  Surely  they  did.  Why  was  their  prayer  not 
answered,  then  ?  God  has  not  any  step-children.  James 
was  as  dear  to  God  as  Peter  was.  One  prayer  was 
answered  ;  was  the  other  left  unanswered  ?  It  was  the 
Divine  purpose  that  Peter,  being  prayed  for,  should  be 
delivered  ;  and  we  may  reverently  say  that,  if  there  had 
not  been  the  many  in  Mary's  house  praying,  there  would 
have  been  no  angel  in  Peter's  cell. 

So  here  are  revealed  the  strength  of  the  weak,  the 
armour  of  the  unarmed,  the  defence  of  the  defenceless. 
If  the  Christian  Church  in  its  times  of  persecution 
and  affliction  had  kept  itself  to  the  one  weapon  that  is 
allowed  it,  it  would  have  been  more  conspicuously 
victorious.  And  if  we,  in  our  individual  lives — where, 
indeed,  we  have  to  do  something  else  besides  pray — 
would  remember  the  lesson  of  that  eloquent  "  but,"  we 
should  be  less  frequently  brought  to  perplexity  and 
reduced  to  something  bordering  on  despair.  So  my  first 
lesson  is  the  streng-th  of  the  weak. 


276  Peter's  delivekance  fkom  prison. 

II.  My  next  is  the  delay  of  deliverance. 

Peter  had  been  in  prison  for  some  days,  at  any  rate, 
vind  the  praying  had  been  going  on  all  the  while,  and 
there  was  no  answer.  Day  after  day  "  of  the  unleavened 
bread  "  and  of  the  festival  was  slipping  away.  The  last 
night  had  come  ;  "  and  the  same  night "  the  light  shone, 
and  the  angel  appeared.  Why  did  Jesns  Christ  not  hear 
the  cry  of  these  poor  suppliants  sooner  ?  For  their 
sakes  ;  for  Peter's  sake ;  for  our  sakes  ;  for  His  own 
sake.  For  the  eventual  intervention,  at  the  very  last 
moment,  and  yet  at  a  sufficiently  early  moment,  tested 
faith.  And  look  how  beautifully  all  bore  the  test.  The 
man  that  was  to  be  killed  to-morrow  is  lying  quietly 
sleeping  in  his  cell.  Not  a  very  comfortable  pillow  he 
had  to  lay  his  head  upon,  with  a  chain  on  each  arm 
and  a  legionary  on  each  side  of  him.  But  he  slept ;  and 
whilst  he  was  asleep  Christ  was  awake,  and  the  brethren 
were  awake.  Their  faith  was  tested,  and  it  stood  the 
test,  and  thereby  was  strengthened.  And  Peter's 
patience  and  faith,  being  tested  in  like  manner  and  in 
like  manner  standing  the  test,  were  deepened  and  con- 
firmed. Depend  upon  it,  he  was  a  better  man  all  his 
days,  because  he  had  been  brought  close  up  to  Death 
and  looked  it  in  the  fleshless  eye-sockets,  unwinking  and 
unterrified.  And  I  daresay  if,  long  after,  he  had  been 
asked,  "  Would  you  not  have  liked  to  have  escaped  those 
two  or  three  days  of  suspense,  and  to  have  been  let  go 
at  an  earlier  moment  ?  "  he  would  have  said,  "  Not  for 
worlds  !  For  I  learned  in  those  days  that  my  Lord's 
time  is  the  best.  I  learned  patience  " — a  lesson  which 
Peter  especially  needed — "  and  I  learned  trust." 

Do  you  remember  another  incident,  singularly  parallel 


Peter's  deliverance  from  prison.  277 

ia  spirit,  thongli  entirely  unlike  in  circumstances,  to  this 
one  ?  The  two  weeping  sisters  at  Bethany  send  their 
messenger  across  the  Jordan,  grudging  every  moment 
that  he  takes  to  travel  to  the  far-off  spot  where  Christ 
is.  The  message  sent  is  only  this  :  "  He  whom  Thou 
lovest  is  sick."  What  an  infinite  trust  in  Christ's  heart 
that  form  of  the  message  showed  I  They  would  not  say 
"  Come " ;  they  would  not  ask  Him  to  do  anything  ; 
they  did  not  think  it  was  needful ;  they  were  quite  sure 
that  what  He  would  do  would  be  right. 

And  how  was  the  message  received  ?  "  Jesus  loved 
Martha  and  Mary  and  Lazarus."  Well,  did  that  not 
make  Him  hurry  as  fast  as  He  could  to  the  bedside  ? 
No ;  it  rooted  Him  to  the  spot.  "  He  abode,  therefore  " 
— because  He  loved  them— "two  days  still  in  the  same 
place  where  He  was,"  to  give  him  plenty  o^  time  to  die, 
and  the  sisters  plenty  of  time  to  test  their  confidence  in 
Him.  Their  confidence  does  not  seem  to  have  stood  the 
test  altogether.  "  Lord,  if  Thou  hadst  been  here  my 
brother  had  not  died."  "  And  why  wast  Thou  not  here  ?  " 
is  implied.  Christ's  time  was  the  best  time.  It  was 
better  to  get  a  dead  brother  back  to  their  arms  and  to 
their  house  than  that  they  should  never  have  lost  him 
for  those  dreary  four  days.  So  delay  tests  faith,  and 
makes  the  deliverance,  when  it  comes,  not  only  the 
sweeter,  but  the  more  conspicuously  Divine.  So,  brother, 
"  men  ought  always  to  pray,  and  not  to  faint  " — always 
to  trust  that  "  the  Lord  will  help  them,  and  that  right 
early." 

III.  The  next  lesson  that  I  would  suggest  is  the 
leisureliness  of  the  deliverance. 

A  prisoner  escaping  might  be  glad  to  make  a  bolt  for 


278  Peter's  deliverance  from  prison. 

it,  dressed  or  undressed,  anyhow.  But  when  the  angel 
comes  into  the  cell,  and  the  light  shines,  look  how 
slowly  and,  as  I  say,  leisurely,  he  goes  about  it.  "  Put 
on  thy  shoes."  He  had  taken  them  o£F,  with  his  girdle 
and  his  upper  garment,  that  he  might  lie  the  less  un- 
comfortably. "  Put  on  thy  shoes  ;  lace  them  j  make 
them  all  right.  Never  mind  about  these  two  legionaries  ; 
they  will  not  wake.  Gird  thyself ;  tighten  thy  girdle. 
Put  on  thy  garment.  Do  not  be  afraid.  Do  not  be  in 
a  hurry ;  there  is  plenty  of  time.  Now,  are  you  ready  ? 
Come."  Now  it  would  have  been  as  easy  for  the  angel 
to  have  whisked  him  out  of  the  cell  and  put  him  down 
at  Mary's  door  ;  but  that  was  not  to  be  the  way.  Peter 
was  led  past  all  the  obstacles — "  the  first  ward,"  and  the 
soldiers  at  it ;  "  the  second  ward,"  and  the  soldiers  at  it ; 
"  and  the  third  gate  that  leads  into  the  city,"  which  was 
no  doubt  bolted  and  barred.  There  was  a  leisurely  pro- 
cession through  the  prison. 

Why?  Because  Omnipotence  is  never  in  a  hurry, 
and  God,  not  only  in  His  judgments  but  in  His  mercies, 
very  often  works  slowly,  as  becomes  His  majesty. 
"  Ye  shall  not  go  out  with  haste  ;  nor  go  by  flight,  for 
the  Lord  will  go  before  you ;  and  the  God  of  Israel 
shall  be  your  rereward."  We  are  impatient,  and 
hurry  our  work  over  ;  God  works  slowly  ;  for  He  works 
certainly.  That  is  the  law  of  the  Divine  working  in 
all  regions  ;  and  we  have  to  regulate  the  pace  of  our 
eager  expectation  so  as  to  fall  in  with  the  slow,  solemn 
march  of  the  Divine  purposes,  both  in  regard  to  our 
individual  salvation  and  the  providences  that  affect  ub 
individually,  and  in  regard  to  the  world's  deliverance 
from  the  world's  evils.     "  An  inheritance  may  be  gotten 


Peter's  deliverance  from  prison.  279 

hastily  in  the  beginning,  but  the  end  thereof  shall  not 
be  blessed."  "  He  that  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste." 

IV.  We  see  here,  too,  the  delivered  prisoner  left  to 
act  for  himself  as  soon  as  possible. 

As  long  as  the  angel  was  with  Peter,  he  was  dazed 
and  amazed.  He  did  not  know: — and  small  blame  to 
him — whether  he  was  sleeping  or  waking  :  but  he  gets 
through  the  gates,  and  out  into  the  empty  street, 
glimmering  in  the  morning  twilight,  and  the  angel 
disappears,  and  the  slumbering  city  is  lying  around 
him.  When  he  is  left  to  himself,  he  comes  to  himself. 
He  could  not  have  passed  the  wards  without  a  miracle, 
but  he  can  find  his  way  to  Mary's  house  without  one. 
He  needed  the  angel  to  bring  him  as  far  as  the  gate 
and  down  into  the  street,  but  he  did  not  need  him 
any  longer.  So  the  angel  vanished  into  the  morning 
light,  and  then  he  felt  himself,  and  steadied  himself, 
when  responsibility  came  to  him.  That  is  the  thing 
to  sober  a  man.  So  he  stood  in  the  middle  of  the 
unpeopled  street,  and  "  he  considered  the  thing,"  and 
found  in  his  own  wits  sufficient  guidance,  so  that  he 
did  not  miss  the  angel.  He  said  to  himself  "  I  will  go 
to  Mary's  house."  Probably  he  did  not  know  that  there 
was  any  one  praying  there,  but  it  was  near,  and  it  was, 
no  doubt,  convenient  in  other  respects  that  we  do  not 
know  of.  The  economy  of  miraculous  power  is  a  re- 
markable feature  in  Scriptural  miracles.  God  never 
does  anything  for  us  that  we  could  do  for  ourselves.  Not 
but  that  our  doing  for  ourselves  is,  in  a  deeper  sense. 
His  working  on  us  and  in  us,  but  He  desires  us  to  take 
the  share  that  belongs  to  us  in  completing  the  deliverance 


280  Peter's  deliverance  from  prison. 

whicli  mnst  begin  by  supernatural  intervention  of  a 
Mightier  than  the  angel,  even  the  Lord  of  angels. 

And  so  this  little  picture  of  the  angel  leading  Peter 
through  the  prison,  and  then  leaving  him  to  his  own 
common-sense  and  courage  as  soon  as  he  came  out  into 
the  street,  is  just  a  practical  illustration  of  the  great 
text,  "Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you." 

V.  Now  the  last  lesson  is  the  unbelieving  astonish- 
ment of  the  believing  men  who  pray,  at  the  answer 
to  their  prayer. 

They  "  prayed  earnestly  "  ;  and  when  Rhoda,  with  fine 
feminine  illogicalness,  was  so  glad  that  she  left  Peter 
standing  out  there  in  the  street,  in  danger  of  falling 
mto  the  hands  of  Herod's  men,  in  order  to  tell  the 
wonderful  story  that  he  was  there,  the  brethren,  when 
they  heard  her  outpoured  narrative,  did  not  believe  that 
their  prayer  had  been  answered.  They  were  prepared 
rather  to  believe  either  of  two  far  more  unlikely  alter- 
natives than  to  accept  the  fact  that  their  cry  had  been 
heard.  In  the  first  place,  rather  than  suppose  that  it  had, 
they  were  ready  to  think  that  the  poor  child  was  mad ; 
and  then,  when  that  notion  was  disposed  of,  they  hit  on 
the  other  hypothesis  :  "  It  is  his  angel."  A  great  many 
of  us  have  a  touch  of  unbelief  in  our  most  earnest 
petitions,  and  would  be  surprised  at  nothing  so  much  as 
that  the  answer  should  stand  there  before  us. 

Then  come  two  more  of  Luke's  vivid  touches  ;  "  Peter 
continued  knocking."  No  wonder  ;  it  was  like  him,  and 
it  was  very  warrantable  in  the  circumstances,  that  he 
should  persist  in  hammering  at  the  door,  whilst  they 
were  discussing   inside  whether  he  was   there   or   not. 


Peter's  deliveeance  from  prison.  281 

And  then  it  dawned  upon  some  of  them  that  perhaps 
the  best  way  to  settle  the  debate  would  be  to  open  the 
door  and  see.  But  this  time  they  do  not  send  Rhoda — 
perhaps  she  was  too  frightened  to  go  back — so  we  read 
"  they  opened  the  door."  The  whole  body  of  them  seem 
to  have  flocked  out  to  keep  each  other  in  company  and 
courage.  "  They  opened  the  door,  and  they  were " — 
what  ?  "  Astonished."  Then  they  all  began,  in  Eastern 
fashion,  to  talk  at  once  ;  so  Peter  "  beckoned  with 
his  hand  to  them "  to  be  quiet  and  did  away  with 
the  astonishment  ;  for  **  he  told  them  how  the  Lord 
had  delivered  him." 

Well,  do  not  let  us  pray  like  them,  with  unbelief 
streaking  our  earnestness  and  faith.  Expect  an  answer 
to  your  prayer ;  and  do  not  be  surprised  when  it  comes, 
and  do  not  be  ready  to  adopt  any  hypothesis,  however 
ridiculous,  rather  than  the  plain.  Christian  one  that  God 
has  answered  your  prayer. 

"  Lord,  I  believe,  help  Thou  mine  unbelief  1 "  said 
another  man,  whose  prayer  was  a  strange  mixture  ol 
faith  and  distrust ;  and  Christ  helped  him.  But  we 
are  more  sure  to  be  helped  and  to  get  the  answer,  if  we 
do  not  doubt,  but  believe  in  our  hearts  that  when  we 
stand  praying,  we  receive  the  things  that  we  ask,  and 
then  we  shall  have  them. 


A    PAIR    OF    FRIENDS. 

**  Can  two  walk  together,  except  they  be  agreed  ?  " — Amos.  iil.  8. 

THEY  do  not  need  to  be  agreed  about  everything. 
They  must,  however,  wish  to  keep  each  other's 
company,  and  they  must  be  going  by  the  same  road  to 
the  same  place.  The  application  of  the  parable  is  very 
plain,  though  there  are  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
bearing  of  the  whole  context,  which  need  not  concern  us 
now.  The  "two"  whom  the  prophet  would  fain  see 
walking  together  are  God  and  Israel,  and  his  question 
suggests  not  only  the  companionship  and  communion 
with  God,  which  are  the  highest  form  of  religion  and  the 
aim  of  all  forms  and  ceremonies  of  worship,  but  also  the 
inexorable  condition  on  which  alone  that  height  of 
communion  can  be  secured  and  sustained.  Two  7iiay 
walk  together,  though  the  one  be  God  in  heaven  and 
the  other  be  I  in  England.  But  they  have  to  be  agreed 
thus  far,  at  any  rate,  that  both  shall  wish  to  be  together, 
and  both  be  going  the  same  road. 

I.  So  I  ask  you  to  look,  first,  at  that  possible  blessed 
companionship  which  may  cheer  a  life. 

There  are  three  phrases  in  the  Old  Testament,  very 
like  each  other,  and  yet  presenting  different  facets  or 
aspects  of  the  same  great  truth.    Sometimes  we  read 

282 


A   PAni   OF   FEIENDS.  283 

about  "  walking  before  God,"  as  Abraham  was  bid  to  do. 
That  means  ordering  the  daily  life  under  the  continual 
sense  that  we  are  "  ever  in  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye." 
Then  there  is  "  walking  after  God,"  and  that  means 
conforming  the  will  and  active  efforts  to  the  rule  that  He 
has  laid  down,  setting  our  steps  firm  on  the  paths  that  He 
has  prepared  that  we  should  walk  in  them,  and  accepting 
His  providences.  But  also,  high  above  both  these  con- 
ceptions of  a  devout  life  is  the  one  which  is  suggested 
by  my  text,  and  which,  as  you  remember,  was  realised  in 
the  case  of  the  patriarch  Enoch — walking  "  with  God." 
For  to  walk  before  Him  may  have  with  it  some  tremor, 
and  may  be  undertaken  in  the  spirit  of  the  slave,  who 
would  be  glad  to  get  away  from  the  jealous  eye  that 
rebukes  his  slothfuluess  ;  and  "  walking  after  Him " 
may  be  a  painful  and  partial  effort  to  keep  His  distant 
figure  in  sight ;  but  to  "  walk  with  Him "  implies  a 
constant,  quiet  sense  of  His  Divine  presence  which  for- 
bids that  I  should  ever  be  lonely,  which  guides  and 
defends,  which  floods  my  soul  and  fills  my  life,  and  in 
which,  as  the  companions  pace  along  side  by  side,  words 
may  be  spoken  by  either,  or  blessed  silence  may  be 
eloquent  of  perfect  trust  and  rest. 

But,  dear  brother,  far  above  us  as  such  experience 
seems  to  sound,  such  a  life  is  a  possibility  for  every  one 
of  us.  We  may  be  able  to  say,  as  truly  as  our  Lord  said 
it,  "I  am  not  alone,  for  the  Father  is  with  me."  It  is 
possible  that  the  dreariest  solitude  of  a  soul,  such  as  is 
not  realised  when  the  body  is  removed  from  men,  but 
is  felt  most  in  the  crowded  city,  where  there  is  none 
that  loves  or  fathoms  and  sympathises,  may  be  turned 
into    blessed  fellowship    with   Him.      Yes,  but   that 


284  A  PAIR   OF  FEIENDS. 

solitude  will  not.  be  so  turned  unless  it  is  first  painfully 
felt.  As  Daniel  said,  "  I  was  left  alone,  and  I  saw  the 
great  vision."  We  need  to  feel  in  our  deepest  hearts 
that  loneliness  on  earth  before  we  walk  with  God. 

K  we  are  so  walking,  it  is  no  piece  of  fanaticism  to 
say  that  there  will  be  mutual  communications.  Do  you 
not  believe  that  God  knows  His  way  into  the  spirits  that 
He  has  endowed  with  conscious  life?  Do  you  believe 
that  He  speaks  now  to  people  as  truly  as  He  did  to 
prophets  and  Apostles  of  old — as  truly  ;  though  the 
results  of  His  speech  to  us  of  to-day  be  not  of  the  same 
authority  for  others,  as  the  words  that  He  spoke  to  a 
Paul  or  a  John.  The  belief  in  God's  communications  as 
for  ever  sounding  in  the  depths  of  the  Christian  spirit 
does  not  at  all  obliterate  the  distinction  between  the 
kind  of  inspiration  which  produced  the  New  Testament 
and  that  which  is  realised  by  all  believing  and  obedient 
souls.  High  above  all  our  experience  of  hearing  the 
words  of  God  in  our  hearts  stands  that  of  those  holy  men 
of  old  who  heard  God's  message  whispered  in  their  ears, 
that  they  might  proclaim  it  on  the  house  tops  to  all  the 
world  through  all  generations.  But,  though  they  and 
we  are  on  a  different  level  and  God  spoke  to  them  for 
a  different  purpose,  He  speaks  in  our  spirits,  if  we  will 
comply  with  the  conditions,  as  truly  as  He  did  in  theirs. 
As  really  as  it  was  ever  true  that  the  Lord  spoke  unto 
Abraham,  or  Isaiah,  or  Paul,  it  is  true  that  He  now 
speaks  to  the  man  that  walks  with  Him.  Frank  speech 
on  both  sides  beguiles  many  a  weary  mile,  when  lovers 
or  friends  foot  it  side  by  side  ;  and  this  pair  of  friends, 
of  whom  our  text  speaks,  have  mutual  intercourse.  God 
speaks  with   His  servant  now,  as  of  old,  "  as  a  man 


A   PAIR   OF   FEIENDS.  285 

speaketh  with  his  friend "  ;  and  we  on  our  parts,  if 
we  are  truly  walking  with  Him,  shall  feel  it  natural 
to  speak  frankly  to  God.  As  two  friends  on  the  road 
will  interchange  remarks  about  trifles,  and,  if  they 
love  each  other,  the  remarks  about  the  trifles  will  be 
weighted  with  love,  so  we  can  tell  our  smallest  affairs 
to  God  ;  and,  if  we  have  Him  for  our  Pilgrim-Com- 
panion, we  do  not  need  to  lock  up  any  troubles  or 
concerns  of  any  sort,  big  or  little,  in  our  hearts,  but  may 
speak  them  all  to  our  Friend  who  goes  with  us. 

The  two  may  walk  together.  That  is  the  end  of 
all  religion.  What  are  creeds  for  ?  What  are  services 
and  sacraments  for?  What  is  theology  for?  What 
is  Christ's  redeeming  act  for?  All  culminate  in  this 
true,  constant  fellowship  between  men  and  God.  And 
unless,  in  some  measure,  that  result  is  arrived  at  in 
our  cases,  our  religion,  let  it  be  as  orthodox  as  you 
like  ;  our  faith  in  the  redemption  of  Jesus  Christ,  let 
it  be  as  real  as  you  will  ;  our  attendances  on  services 
and  sacraments,  let  them  be  as  punctilious  and  regular 
as  may  be,  are  all  "  sounding  brass  and  tinkling 
cymbal."  Get  side  by  side  with  God.  That  is  the 
purpose  of  all  these,  and  fellowship  with  Him  is  the 
climax  of  all  religion. 

It  is  also  the  secret  of  all  blessedness,  the  only  thing 
that  will  make  a  life  absolutely  sovereign  over  sorrow, 
and  fixedly  unperturbed  by  all  tempests,  and  invulnerable 
to  all  "  the  slings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune." 
Hold  fast  by  God,  and  you  have  an  amulet  against 
every  evil,  and  a  shield  against  every  foe,  and  a  mighty 
power  that  will  calm  and  satisfy  your  whole  being. 
Nothing  else,  nothing  else  will  do  so.    As  Augustine 


286  A   PAIK   OF  FKIENDS. 

said,  "  0  God  1  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and  in 
Thyself  only  are  we  at  rest."  If  the  Shepherd  is  with 
us  we  will  fear  no  evil. 

II.  Now,  a  word,  in  the  next  place,  as  to  the  sadly 
incomplete  reality,  in  much  Christian  experience,  which 
contrasts  vdth  this  possibility. 

I  am  afraid  that  very,  very  few  so-called  Christian 
people  habitually  feel,  as  they  might  do,  the  depth 
and  blessedness  of  this  communion.  And  sure  I  am 
that  only  a  very  small  percentage  of  us  have  anything 
like  the  continuity  of  companionship  which  my  text 
suggests  as  possible.  There  may  be,  and  therefore 
there  should  be,  running  unbroken  through  a  Christian 
life  one  long,  bright  line  of  communion  with  God 
and  happy  inspiration  from  the  sense  of  His  presence 
with  us.  Is  it  a  line  in  my  life,  or  is  there  but  a 
dot  here,  and  a  dot  there,  and  long  breaks  between? 
The  long  embarrassed  pauses  in  a  conversation  between 
two  who  do  not  know  much  of,  or  care  much  for, 
each  other  are  only  too  like  what  occurs  in  many 
professing  Christians'  intercourse  with  God.  Their 
communion  is  like  those  time-worn  inscriptions  that 
archaeologists  dig  up,  with  a  word  clearly  cut  and 
then  a  great  gap,  and  then  a  letter  or  two,  and  then 
another  gap,  and  then  a  little  bit  more  legible,  and  then 
the  stone  broken,  and  all  the  rest  gone.  Did  you  ever 
read  the  meteorological  reports  in  the  newspapers  and 
observe  a  record  like  this,  "Twenty  minutes'  sunshine 
out  of  a  possible  eight  hours "  ?  Do  you  not  think 
that  Buch  a  state  of  affairs  is  a  little  like  the  experience 
of  a  great  many  Christian  people  in  regard  to  their 
communion  with  God  ?    It  is  broken  at  the  best,  and 


A   PAIK   OF   FRIENDS.  287 

imperfect  at  the  completest,  and  shallow  at  the  deepest. 
Oh,  dear  brethren,  rise  to.the  height  of  your  possibilities, 
and  live  as  close  to  God  as  He  lets  you  live,  and  nothing 
will  much  trouble  you. 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  a  word  about  the  simple 
explanation  of  the  failure  to  realise  this  continual 
presence. 

"  Can  two  walk  together  except  they  be  agreed  ? " 
Certainly  not.  Our  fathers,  in  a  sterner  and  more  re- 
ligious age  than  ours,  used  to  be  greatly  troubled  how 
to  account  for  a  state  of  Christian  experience,  which  they 
supposed  to  be  due  to  God's  withdrawing  of  the  sense 
of  His  presence  from  His  children.  Whether  there  is 
any  such  withdrawal  or  not,  I  am  quite  certain  that 
that  is  not  the  cause  of  the  interrupted  communion 
between  God  and  the  average  Christian  man.  I  make 
all  allowance  for  the  ups  and  downs,  and  changing 
moods  which  necessarily  affect  us,  in  this  present  life, 
and  I  make  all  allowances,  too,  for  the  pressure  of 
imperative  duties  and  distracting  cares  which  interfere 
with  our  communion,  though,  if  we  were  as  strong  as 
we  might  be,  they  would  not  wile  us  away  from,  but 
drive  us  to,  our  Father  in  heaven. 

But  when  all  such  allowances  have  been  made,  I  come 
back  to  my  text  as  the  explanation  of  interrupted  com- 
munion. The  two  are  not  agreed  ;  and  that  is  why 
they  are  not  walking  together.  The  consciousness  of 
God's  presence  with  us  is  a  very  delicate  thing.  It  is 
like  a  very  sensitive  thermometer,  which  will  drop  when 
an  iceberg  is  a  league  off  over  the  sea,  and  scarcely 
visible.  We  do  not  wish  His  company,  or  we  are  not 
in  harmony  with  His  thoughts,  or  we  are  not  going  His 


288  A    PAIE    OF   FRIENDS. 

road,  and  therefore,  of  course,  we  part.  At  bottom 
there  is  only  one  thing  that  separates  a  sonl  from  God, 
and  that  is  sin — sin  of  some  sort,  like  tiny  grains  of  dust 
that  get  between  two  polished  plates  in  an  engine,  that 
ought  to  move  smoothly  and  closely  against  each  other. 
The  obstruction  may  be  invisible,  and  yet  be  powerful 
enough  to  cause  friction,  which  hinders  the  working  of 
the  engine  and  throws  everything  out  of  gear.  A  light 
cloud  that  we  cannot  see  may  come  between  us  and  a 
star,  and  we  shall  only  know  it  is  there,  because  the  star 
is  not  visibly  there.  Similarly,  many  a  Christian,  quite 
unconsciously,  has  something  or  other  in  his  habits,  or  in 
his  conduct,  or  in  his  affections,  which  would  reveal 
itself  to  him,  if  he  would  look,  as  being  wrong,  because 
it  blots  out  God.  ' 

Let  us  remember  that  very  little  divergence  will,  if 
the  two  paths  are  prolonged  far  enough,  part  their  other 
ends  by  a  world.  Our  way  may  go  off  from  the  ways  of 
the  Lord  at  a  very  acute  angle.  There  may  be  scarcely 
any  consciousness  of  parting  company  at  the  beginning. 
Let  the  man  travel  on  upon  it  far  enough,  and  the  two 
will  be  so  far  apart  that  he  cannot  see  God  or  hear  Him 
speak.  Take  care  of  the  little  divergencies  which  are 
habitual,  for  their  accumulated  results  will  be  complete 
separation.  There  must  be  absolute  surrender  if  there 
is  to  be  uninterrupted  fellowship. 

Such,  then,  is  the  direction  in  wMch  we  are  to  look 
for  the  reasons  for  our  low  and  broken  experiences  of 
communion  with  God.  Oh,  dear  friends,  when  we  do 
as  we  sometimes  do,  wake  with  a  start,  like  a  child  that 
all  at  once  starts  from  sleep  and  finds  that  its  mother  is 
gone — when  we  wake  with  a  start  to   feel  that  we  are 


A   PAIK   OF   FBIENDS.  289 

alone,  then  do  not  let  us  be  afraid  to  go  straight  back. 
Only  be  sure  that  we  leave  behind  us  the  sin  that 
parted  us. 

You  remember  how  Peter  signalised  himself  on  the 
lake,  on  the  occasion  of  the  second  miraculous  draught 
of  fishes,  when  he  floundered  through  the  water  and 
clasped  Christ's  feet.  He  did  not  say  then,  "  Depart 
from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  0  Lord  I  "  He  had  said 
that  before  on  a  similar  occasion,  when  he  felt  his  sin 
less,  but  now  he  knew  that  the  best  place  for  the  denier 
was  with  his  head  on  Christ's  bosom. 

So,  if  we  have  parted  from  our  Friend,  there  should  be 
no  time  lost  ere  we  go  back.  May  it  be  true  of  us  that 
we  walk  with  God,  so  that  at  last  the  great  promise 
may  be  fulfilled  about  us,  "  that  we  shall  walk  with  Him 
in  white,"  being  by  His  love  accounted  "  worthy,"  and 
so  "follow,"  and  keep  company  with,  "the  Lamb 
whithersoever  He  goeth  I " 


If 


A   SOLDIER'S   SHOES. 

"Toot  feet  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace,"— 
EPHBfilAl^S  vL  15. 

PAUL  drew  the  first  draft  of  this  picture  of  the 
Christian  armour  in  his  first  letter.  It  is  a  finished 
picture  here.  One  can  fancy  that  the  Roman  soldier  to 
whom  he  was  chained  in  his  captivity,  whilst  this  letter 
was  being  written,  unconsciously  sat  for  his  likeness, 
and  that  each  piece  of  his  accoutrements  was  seized  in 
succession  by  the  Apostle's  imagination  and  turned  to 
a  Christian  use.  It  is  worth  noticing  that  there  is  only 
one  offensive  weapon  mentioned — "  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit."  All  the  rest  are  defensive  :  helmet,  breast- 
plate, shield,  girdle,  and  shoes.  That  is  to  say — the 
main  part  of  our  warfare  consists  in  defence,  in  resist- 
ance, and  in  keeping  what  we  have,  in  spite  of  every- 
body, men  and  devils,  who  attempt  to  take  it  from  us. 
"  Hold  fast  that  thou  hast ;  let  no  man  take  thy  crown." 
Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  ordinary  reader  does 
not  quite  grasp  the  meaning  of  our  text,  and  that  it 
would  be  more  intelligible  if,  instead  of  "  preparation," 
which  means  the  process  of  getting  a  thing  ready,  we 
read  "  preparedness,"  which  means  the  state  of  mind  of 
the  man  who  is  ready.     Then  we  have  to  notice  that 

290 


A  soldiee's  shoes.  291 

the  little  word  "  of*  does  duty  to  express  two  different 
relations,  in  the  two  instances  of  its  use  here.  In  the 
first  case — "  the  preparedness  of  the  Gospel " — it  states 
the  origin  of  the  thiug  in  question.  That  condition 
of  being  ready  comes  from  the  good  news  of  Christ. 
In  the  second  case — "  the  Gospel  of  peace  " — it  states 
the  result  of  the  thing  in  question.  The  good  news  of 
Christ  gives  peace.  So,  taking  the  whole  clause,  we 
may  paraphrase  it  by  saying  that  the  preparedness  of 
spirit,  the  alacrity  which  comes  from  the  possession  of 
a  Gospel  that  sheds  a  calm  over  the  heart  and  brings 
a  man  into  peace  with  God,  is  what  the  Apostle  thinks 
is  like  the  heavy  hob-nailed  boots  that  the  legionaries 
wore,  by  which  they  could  stand  firm,  whatever  came 
against  them. 

I.  The  first  thing  that  I  would  notice  here  is  that 
the  Gospel  brings  peace. 

I  suppose  that  there  was  ringing  in  Paul's  head  some 
echoes  of  the  music  of  Isaiah's  words,  "  How  beautiful 
upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  Him  that  bringeth 
good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace,  that  bringeth  good 
tidings  of  good  I  "  But  there  is  a  great  deal  more 
than  an  unconscious  quotation  of  ancient  words  here. 
For  in  Paul's  thought,  the  one  power  which  brings  a 
man  into  harmony  with  the  universe  and  peace  with 
himself,  is  the  power  which  proclaims  that  God  is  at 
peace  with  him.  And  Jesus  Christ  is  our  peace,  because 
He  has  swept  away  the  root  and  bitter  fountain  of  all 
the  disquiet  of  men's  hearts,  and  all  their  chafing  at 
providences— the  consciousness  that  there  is  discord 
between  themselves  and  God.  The  Gospel  brings  peace 
in  the  deepest  sense  of  that  word,  and,  primarily,  peace 


292  A  soldier's  shoes. 

with  God,  from  out  of  wliich  all  other  kinds  of 
tranquillity  and  heart-repose  do  come — and  they  come 
from  nothing  besides. 

But  what  strikes  me  most  here  is  not  so  much  the 
allusion  to  the  blessed  truth  that  was  believed  and 
experienced  by  these  Ephesian  Christians,  that  the 
Gospel  brought  peace,  and  was  the  only  thing  that  did, 
as  the  singular  emergence  of  that  idea  that  the  Gospel 
was  a  peace-bringing  power,  in  the  midst  of  this  picture 
of  fighting.  Yes,  it  brings  both.  It  brings  us  peace 
first,  and  then  it  says  to  us,  "  Now,  having  got  peace 
in  your  heart,  because  peace  with  God,  go  out  and 
fight  to  keep  it."  For,  if  we  are  warring  with  the  devil 
we  are  at  peace  with  God ;  and  if  we  are  at  peace  with 
the  devil  we  are  warring  with  God.  So  the  two  states 
of  peace  and  war  go  together.  There  is  no  real  peace 
which  has  not  conflict  in  it,  and  the  Gospel  is  "the 
Gospel  of  peace,"  precisely  because  it  enlists  us  in  Christ's 
army  and  sends  us  out  to  fight  Christ's  battles. 

So,  then,  dear  brother,  the  only  way  to  realise  and 
preserve  "  the  peace  of  God  which  passes  understanding  " 
is  to  fling  ourselves  manfully  into  the  fight  to  which 
all  Christ's  soldiers  are  pledged  and  bound.  The  two 
conditions,  though  they  seem  to  be  opposite,  will  unite  ; 
for  this  is  the  paradox  of  the  Christian  life,  that  in  all 
regions  it  makes  compatible  apparently  incompatible 
and  contradictory  emotions.  "  As  sorrowful " — and  Paul 
might  have  said  "therefore"  instead  of  "yet" — "as 
sorrowful  yet  always  rejoicing  ;  as  having  nothing  yet " 
— therefore — "possessing  all  things";  as  in  the  thick 
of  the  fight,  and  yet  kept  in  perfect  peace,  because  the 
soul  is   stayed  on   God.    The  peace  that  comes  from 


A  soldier's  shoes.  293 

friendship  with  Him,  the  peace  that  fills  a  heart  tranquil 
because  satisfied,  the  peace  that  soothes  a  conscience 
emptied  of  all  poison  and  robbed  of  all  its  sting,  the 
peace  that  abides  because,  on  all  the  horizon  in  front 
of  us  nothing  can  be  seen  that  we  need  to  be  afraid  of — 
that  peace  is  the  peace  which  the  Gospel  brings,  and  it 
is  realised  in  warfare  and  is  consistent  with  it.  All 
the  armies  of  the  world  may  camp  round  the  fortress, 
and  the  hurtling  noise  of  battle  may  be  loud  in  the 
plains,  but  up  upon  the  impregnable  cliff  crowned  by 
its  battlements  there  is  a  central  citadel,  with  a  chapel 
in  the  heart  of  it ;  and  to  the  worshippers  there  none 
of  the  noise  ever  penetrates.  The  Gospel  which  laps 
us  in  peace  and  puts  it  in  our  hearts  makes  us  soldiers. 

II.  Further,  this  Gospel  of  peace  will  prepare  us  for 
the  march. 

A  wise  general  looks  after  his  soldiers'  boots.  If 
they  give  out,  nothing  else  is  of  much  use.  The  roads 
are  very  rough  and  very  long,  and  there  need  to  be 
strong  soles  and  well-sewed  uppers,  and  they  will  be 
none  the  worse  for  a  bit  of  iron  on  the  heels  and  the 
toes,  in  order  that  they  may  not  wear  out  in  the  midst 
of  the  campaign.  "  Thy  shoes  shall  be  iron  and  brass," 
and  these  metals  are  harder  than  any  of  the  rock  that  you 
will  have  to  clamber  over.  Which  being  translated  into 
plain  fact  is  just  this — a  tranquil  heart  in  amity  with 
God  is  ready  for  all  the  road,  is  likely  to  make  progress, 
and  is  fit  for  anything  that  it  may  be  called  to  do. 

A  calm  heart  makes  a  light  foot ;  and  he  who  is 
living  at  peace  with  God,  and  with  all  disturbance 
within  hushed  to  rest,  will,  for  one  thing,  be  able  to 
see  what  Ms  duty  is.     He  will  see  his  way  as  far  as  is 


294  A  soldiee's  shoes. 

needful  for  the  momeut.  That  is  more  than  a  good 
many  of  us  can  do,  when  our  eyes  get  confused,  because 
our  hearts  are  beating  so  loudly  and  fast,  and  our 
own  wishes  come  in  to  hide  from  us  God's  will.  But 
if  we  are  weaned  from  ourselves,  as  we  shall  be  if  we 
are  living  in  possession  of  the  peace  of  God  which  passes 
understanding,  the  atmosphere  will  be  transparent,  as 
it  is  on  some  of  the  calm  last  days  of  autumn,  and  we 
shall  see  far  ahead  and  know  where  we  ought  to  go. 

The  quiet  heart  will  be  able  to  fling  its  whole  strength 
into  its  work.  And  that  is  what  troubled  hearts  never 
can  do,  for  half  their  energy  is  taken  up  in  steadying  or 
quieting  themselves,  or  is  dissipated  in  going  after  a 
hundred  other  things.  But  when  we  are  wholly  engaged 
in  quiet  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ,  we  have  the  whole 
of  our  energies  at  our  command,  and  can  fling  ourselves 
wholly  into  our  work  for  Him.  The  steam-engine  is 
said  to  be  a  very  imperfect  machine,  which  wastes  more 
power  than  it  utilises.  That  is  true  of  a  great  many 
Christian  people ;  they  have  the  power,  but  they  are 
so  far  away  from  that  deep  sense  of  tranquillity  with 
God,  of  which  my  text  speaks,  that  they  waste  much  of 
the  power  that  they  have.  And  if  we  are  to  have  for 
our  motto  "  Always  Beady,"  as  an  old  Scottish  family 
has,  the  only  way  to  secure  that  is  by  having  "  our  feet 
shod  with  the  preparedness "  that  comes  from  the 
Gospel  that  brings  us  peace.  Brethren,  duty  that 
is  done  reluctantly,  with  hesitation,  is  not  done.  We 
must  fling  ourselves  into  the  work  gladly,  and  be 
always  "  ready  for  all  Thy  perfect  will." 

There  was  an  English  commander,  who  died  some 
years  ago,  who  was  sent  for   to  the  Horse  Guards  one 


A  soldier's  shoes.  205 

day  and  asked,  "How  long  will  it  take  for  yon  to  be 
ready  to  go  to  Scinde  ?  "  "  Half  an  hour,"  said  he  ; 
and  in  three-quarters  he  was  in  the  train,  on  his  road 
to  reconquer  a  kingdom.  That  is  how  we  onght  to  be  ; 
but  we  never  shall  be,  unless  we  live  habitually  in  tranquil 
communion  with  God,  and  in  the  full  faith  that  we  are 
at  peace  with  Him  through  the  blood  of  His  Son.  A 
quiet  heart  makes  us  ready  for  duty. 

III.  Again,  the  Gospel  of  peace  prepares  us  for 
combat. 

In  ancient  warfare,  battles  were  lost  or  won  very  largely 
according  to  the  weight  of  the  masses  of  men  that  were 
hurled  against  each  other  ;  and  the  heavier  men,  with 
the  firmer  footing,  were  likely  to  be  the  victors.  Our 
modern  scientific  way  of  fighting  is  different  from  that. 
But  in  the  old  time,  the  one  thing  needful  was  that  a 
man  should  stand  firm  and  resist  the  shock  of  the  enemy, 
as  they  rushed  upon  him.  Unless  our  footing  is  good 
we  shall  be  tumbled  over  by  the  onset  of  some  un- 
expected antagonist.  And  for  good  footing  there  are 
two  things  necessary.  One  is  a  good,  solid  piece  of 
ground  to  stand  on,  that  is  not  slippery  nor  muddy,  and 
the  other  is  a  good  strong  pair  of  soldier's  boots,  that  will 
take  hold  on  the  ground  and  help  the  wearer  to  steady 
himself.  Christ  has  set  our  feet  on  the  rock,  and  so  the 
first  requisite  is  secured.  If  we,  for  our  part,  will  keep 
near  to  that  Gospel  which  brings  peace  into  oar  hearts, 
the  peace  that  it  brings  will  make  us  able  to  stand,  and 
bear  unmoved  any  force  that  may  be  hurled  against  us. 
If  we  are  to  be  "  steadfast,  unmovable,"  we  can  only  be  so 
when  our  feet  are  shod  with  the  preparedness  of  the  Gospc ! 
of  peace. 


296  A    SOLDIER'S    S^OES. 

The  most  of  your  temptations,  most  of  the  things  that 
would  plnck  you  away  from  Jesus  Christ,  and  npset  you 
in  your  standing,  will  come  down  upon  you  unexpectedly. 
Nothing  happens  in  this  world  except  the  unexpected  ; 
and  it  is  the  sudden  assaults,  that  we  were  not  looking 
for,  that  work  most  disastrously  against  us.  A  man 
may  be  aware  of  some  special  weakness  in  his  character, 
and  have  given  himself  carefully  and  patiently  to  try  to 
fortify  himself  against  it,  and,  lo  I  all  at  once  a  temptation 
springs  up  from  the  opposite  side  ;  the  enemy  was  lying 
in  hiding  there,  and  whilst  his  face  was  turned  to  fight 
with  one  foe,  a  foe  that  he  knew  nothing  about  came 
storming  behind  him.  There  is  only  one  way  to  stand, 
and  that  is  not  merely  by  cultivating  careful  watchfulness 
against  our  own  weaknesses,  but  by  keeping  fast  hold  of 
Jesus  Christ  manifested  to  us  in  His  Gospel.  Then  the 
peace  that  comes  from  that  communion  will  itself  guard 
us.  You  remember  what  Paul  says  in  one  of  his  other 
letters,  where  he  has  the  same  beautiful  blending 
together  of  the  two  ideas  of  peace  and  warfare  :  "  The 
peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  shall 
garrison  your  hearts  and  minds  in  Christ  Jesus."  It 
will  be,  as  it  were,  an  armed  force  within  your  heart 
which  will  repel  all  antagonism,  and  will  enable  you 
to  abide  in  that  Christ,  through  whom  and  in  whom 
alone  all  peace  comes.  So,  because  we  are  thus  liable  to  be 
overwhelmed  by  a  sudden  rush  of  unexpected  temptation, 
and  surprised  into  a  sin  before  we  know  where  we  are, 
let  us  keep  fast  hold  by  that  Gospel  which  brings  peace, 
which  will  give  us  steadfastness,  however  suddenly  the 
masked  battery  may  begin  to  play  upon  us,  and  the 
foe  may  steal  out  of  his   ambush   and   make  a  rush 


A  soldier's  shoes.  297 

against  our  nnprotectedness.  That  is  the  only  way,  as 
i  think,  by  which  we  can  walk  scatheless  through  the 
world. 

Now,  dear  brethren,  remember  that  this  text  is  part 
of  a  commandment.  We  are  to  put  on  the  shoes. 
How  is  that  to  be  done  ?  By  a  very  simple  way  :  a 
way  which,  I  am  afraid,  a  great  many  Christian  people 
do  not  practise  with  anything  like  the  constancy  that 
they  ought.  For  it  is  the  Gospel  that  brings  the  peace, 
and  if  its  peace  brings  the  preparedness,  then  the  way  to 
get  the  preparedness  is  by  soaking  our  minds  and  hearts 
in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

You  hear  a  good  deal  nowadays  about  deepening  the 
spiritual  life,  and  people  hold  conventions  for  the  pur- 
pose. All  right  ;  I  have  not  a  word  to  say  against 
that.  But,  conventions  or  do  conventions,  there  is  only 
one  thing  that  deepens  the  spiritual  life,  and  that  is 
keeping  near  the  Christ  from  whom  all  the  fulness  of 
the  spiritual  life  flows.  If  we  will  hold  fast  by  our 
Gospel,  and  let  its  peace  lie  upon  our  minds,  as  the 
negative  of  a  photograph  lies  upon  the  paper  that  it  is 
to  be  printed  upon,  until  the  image  of  Jesus  Christ 
Himself  is  reproduced  in  us,  then  we  may  laugh  at 
temptation.  For  there  will  be  no  temptation  when  the 
heart  is  full  of  Him,  and  there  will  be  no  sense  of  sur- 
rendering anything  that  we  wish  to  keep  when  the 
superior  sweetness  of  His  grace  fills  our  souls.  It  is 
empty  vessels  into  which  poison  can  be  poured.  If 
the  vessel  is  full  there  will  be  no  room  for  it.  Get 
your  hearts  and  minds  filled  with  the  wine  of  the  king- 
dom, and  the  devil's  venom  of  temptation  will  have 
no  space  to  get  in.     It  is  well  to  resist  temptation  ;  it 


298  A  soldier's  shoes. 

is  better  to  be  lifted  above  it,  so  that  it  ceases  to  tempt. 
And  the  one  way  to  secure  that  is  to  live  near  Jesas 
Christ,  and  let  the  Gospel  of  His  grace  take  up  more  of 
our  thoughts  and  more  of  our  affections  than  it  has  done 
in  the  past.  Then  we  shall  realise  the  fulfilment  of  the 
promise  :  "  He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved." 


A    LIFE    LOST    AND    FOUND.* 

"  He  that  loseth  his  life  for  Mj  sake  shall  find  it."— Matt.  x.  89. 

MY  heart  impels  me  to  break  this  morning  my  nsnal 
rule  of  avoiding  personal  references  in  the  pulpit. 
Death  has  been  busy  in  our  own  congregation  this  last 
week,  and  yesterday  we  laid  in  the  grave  all  that  was 
mortal  of  a  man  to  whom  Manchester  owes  more  than 
it  knows. 

Mr.  Crossley  has  been  for  thirty  years  my  close  and 
dear  friend.  He  was  long  a  member  of  this  church  and 
congregation.  I  need  not  speak  of  his  utter  unselfishness, 
of  his  lifelong  consecration,  of  his  lavish  generosity,  of 
his  unstinted  work  for  God  and  man  ;  but  thinking  of 
him  and  of  it,  I  have  felt  as  if  the  words  of  my  text 
were  the  secret  of  his  life,  and  as  if  he  now  understood 
the  fulness  of  the  promise  they  contain  :  "  He  that 
loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find  it." 

Now,  looking  at  these  words  in  the  light  of  the  ex- 
ample so  tenderly  beloved  by  some  of  us,  so  sharply 
criticised  by  many,  but  now  so  fully  recognised  as  saintly 
by  all,  I  ask  you  to  consider 

I.  The  stringent  requirement  for  the  Christian  life 
that  is  here  made. 

Now  we  shall  very  much  impoverish  the  meaning 
and   narrow  the  sweep  of  these  great  and  penetrating 

*  Preached  after  the  funeral  of  Mr.  F.W.  Crossley. 
299 


300  A  LIFE   LOST   AND    FOUND. 

words,  if  we  understand  by  "  losing  one's  life "  only 
the  actual  surrender  of  physical  existence.  It  is  not 
only -the  martyr  on  whose  bleeding  brows  the  crown 
of  life  is  gently  placed  ;  it  is  not  only  the  temples  that 
have  been  torn  by  the  crown  of  thorns,  that  are  soothed 
by  that  unfading  wreath  ;  but  there  is  a  daily  dying, 
which  is  continually  required  from  all  Christian  people, 
and  is,  perhaps,  as  hard  as,  or  harder  than,  the  brief 
and  bloody  passage  of  martyrdom,  by  which  some  enter 
into  rest.  For  the  true  losing  of  life  is  the  slaying  of 
self,  and  that  has  to  be  done  day  by  day,  and  not  once 
for  all,  in  some  supreme  act  of  surrender  at  the  end, 
or  in  some  initial  act  of  submission  and  yielding  at 
the  beginning,  of  the  Christian  life.  We  ourselves  have 
to  take  the  knife  into  our  own  hands  and  strike,  and 
that  not  once,  but  ever,  right  on  through  our  whole 
career.  For,  by  natural  disposition,  we  are  all  inclined 
to  make  our  own  selves,  our  own  centres,  our  own  aims, 
the  objects  of  our  trust,  our  own  law  ;  and  if  we  do 
so,  we  are  dead  whilst  we  live,  and  the  death  that 
brings  life  is  when,  day  by  day,  we  crucify  the  old 
man  with  his  affections  and  lusts.  Crucifixion  was  no 
sudden  death  ;  it  was  an  exquisitely  painful  one,  which 
made  every  nerve  quiver  and  the  whole  frame  thrill 
with  anguish  ;  and  that  slow  agony,  in  all  its  terrible- 
ness  and  protractedness,  is  the  image  that  is  set  before 
us,  as  the  true  ideal  of  every  life  that  would  not  be 
a  living  death.  The  world  is  to  be  crucified  to  me, 
and  I  to  the  world. 

We  have  our  centre  in  ourselves,  and  we  need  the 
centre  to  be  shifted,  or  we  live  in  sin.  If  I  might 
venture  upon   so  violent  an    image,   the  comets    that 


A   LIFE  LOST   AND   FOUND.  301 

career  about  the  heavens  need  to  be  caught  and  tamed, 
and  bound  to  peaceful  revolution  round  some  central 
sun,  or  else  they  are  "  wandering  stars  to  whom  is 
reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever."  So, 
brethren,  the  slaying  of  self  by  a  painful,  protracted 
process,  is  the  requirement  of  Christ. 

But  do  not  let  us  confine  oureelves  to  generalities. 
What  is  meant  ?  This  is  meant — the  absolute  sub- 
mission of  the  will  to  commandments  and  providences, 
the  making  of  that  obstinate  part  of  our  nature  meek 
and  obedient  and  plastic  as  the  clay  in  the  potter's 
hands.  The  tanner  takes  a  stiff  hide,  and  soaks  it 
in  bitter  waters,  and  dresses  it  with  sharp  tools,  and 
lubricates  it  with  unguents,  and  his  work  is  not  done 
till  all  the  stiffness  is  out  of  it  and  it  is  flexible.  And 
we  do  not  lose  our  lives,  in  the  lofty,  noble  sense,  until 
we  can  say — and  verify  the  speech  by  our  actions — "  Not 
my  will  but  Thine  be  done."  They  who  thus  submit, 
they  who  thus  welcome  into  their  hearts,  and  enthrone 
upon  the  sovereign  seat  in  their  wills,  Christ  and  His 
will — these  are  they  who  have  lost  their  lives.  When 
we  can  say,  "  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me," 
then,  and  only  then,  have  we  in  the  deepest  sense  of 
the  words  "  lost  our  lives." 

The  phrase  means  the  suppression,  and  sometimes  the 
excision,  of  appetites,  passions,  desires,  inclinations.  It 
means  the  hallowing  of  all  aims  ;  it  means  the  devotion 
and  the  consecration  of  all  activities.  It  means  the  sur- 
render and  the  stewardship  of  all  possessions.  And  only 
then,  when  we  have  done  these  things,  shall  we  have  come 
to  practical  obedience  to  the  initial  requirement  that 
Christ  makes  from  us  all — to  lose  our  lives  for  His  sake. 


302  A   LIFE   LOST   AND    FOUND. 

I  need  not  diverge  here  to  point  to  tliat  life  from  which 
my  thonghts  have  taken  their  start  this  morning.  Surely 
if  there  was  any  one  characteristic  in  it  more  distinct  and 
lovely  than  another,  it  was  that  self  was  dead  and  that 
Christ  lived.  There  may  be  sometimes  a  call  for  the 
actual — which  is  the  lesser  surrender — of  the  bodily  life, 
in  obedience  to  the  call  of  duty.  There  have  been  Chris- 
tian men  who  have  wrought  themselves  to  death  in  the 
Master's  service.  Perhaps  he  of  whom  I  have  been 
speaking  was  one  of  these.  It  may  be  that,  if  he  had  done 
like  so  many  of  our  wealthy  men — had  flung  himself  into 
business  and  then  collapsed  into  repose — he  would  have 
been  here  to-day.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better 
if  there  had  been  a  less  entire  throwing  of  one's  self 
into  arduous  and  clamant  duties.  I  am  not  going  to 
enter  on  the  ethics  of  that  question.  I  do  not  think 
there  are  many  of  this  generation  of  Christians  who  are 
likely  to  work  themselves  to  death  in  Christ's  cause ; 
and  perhaps,  after  all,  the  old  saying  is  a  true  one, 
"  Better  to  wear  out  than  to  rust  out."  But  only  this 
I  will  say  :  we  honour  the  martyrs  of  Science,  of  Com- 
merce, of  Empire.  Why  should  not  we  honour  the 
martyrs  of  Faith?  And  why  should  they  be  branded 
as  imprudent  enthusiasts,  if  they  make  the  same  sacrifice 
which,  when  an  explorer,  or  a  soldier,  makes  it,  his 
memory  is  honoured  as  heroic,  and  his  cold  brows  are 
crowned  with  laurels  ?  Surely  it  is  as  wise  to  die  for 
Christ  as  for  England.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  the  re- 
quirement, the  strhigent  requirement,  of  my  text  is  not 
addressed  to  any  spiritual  aristocracy,  but  is  laid  upon 
the  consciences  of  all  professing  Christians. 

II.  Observe  the  grounds  of  this  requirement. 


A   LIFE   LOST   AND   FOUND.  303 

Did  yon  ever  think — or  has  the  fact  become  so  familiar 
to  you  that  it  ceases  to  attract  notice  ? — did  you  ever  think 
what  an  extraordinary  position  it  is  for  the  son  of  a 
carpenter  in  Nazareth  to  plant  Himself  before  the  human 
race  and  say,  "  You  will  be  wise  if  you  die  for  My  sake, 
and  yon  will  be  doing  nothing  more  than  your  plain 
duty  "  ?  What  business  has  He  to  assume  such  a  position 
as  that  ?  What  warrants  that  autocratic  and  all- 
demanding  tone  from  His  lips  ?  "  Who  art  Thou  " — we 
may  fancy  people  saying — "  that  Thou  shouldst  put  out 
a  masterful  hand  and  claim  to  take  as  Thine  the  life  of 
my  heart  ? "  Ah !  brethren,  there  is  but  one  answer, 
"  Who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  The  foolish, 
loving,  impulsive  Apostle  that  blurted  out,  before  his 
time  had  come,  "  I  will  lay  down  my  life  for  Thy  sake  " 
was  only  premature  ;  he  was  not  mistaken.  There  needed 
that  His  Lord  should  lay  down  His  life  for  Peter's 
sake  ;  and  then  He  had  a  right  to  turn  to  the  Apostle 
and  say,  "  Thou  shall  follow  Me  afterwards,"  and  lay 
down  thy  life  for  My  sake.  The  ground  of  Christ's 
unique  claim  is  Christ's  solitary  sacrifice.  He  who  has 
died  for  men,  and  He  only,  has  the  right  to  require  the 
unconditional,  the  absolute  surrender  of  themselves,  not 
only  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  life  that  is  submitted,  but,  if 
circumstances  demand,  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  death.  The 
ground  of  the  requirement  is  laid,  first  in  the  fact  of  our 
Lord's  Divine  nature,  and  second,  in  the  fact  that  He 
who  asks  my  life  has  first  of  all  given  His. 

But  that  same  phrase,  "  for  My  sake,"  suggests 

III.  The  all-sufficient  motive  which  makes  such  a  loss 
of  life  possible. 

I  suppose  that  there  is  nothing  else  that  will  wholly 


304  A    LIFE   LOST   AND   FOUND. 

dethrone  self  but  the  enthroning  of  Jesus  Christ.  That 
dominion  is  too  deeply  rooted  to  be  abolished  by  any 
enthusiasms,  however  noble  they  may  be,  except  the 
one  that  kindles  its  undying  torch  at  the  flame  of  Christ's 
own  love.  God  forbid  that  I  should  deny  that  wonder- 
ful and  lovely  instances  of  self-oblivion  may  be  found 
in  hearts  untouched  by  the  supreme  love  of  Christ !  But 
whilst  I  recognise  all  the  beauty  of  such,  I,  for  my  part, 
humbly  venture  to  believe  and  assert  that,  for  the  entire 
deliverance  of  a  man  from  self-regard,  the  one  sufficient 
motive  power  is  the  reception  into  his  opening  heart  of 
the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Ah,  brethren,  you  and  I  know  how  hard  it  is  to 
escape  from  the  tyrannous  dominion  of  self,  and  how 
the  evil  spirits  that  have  taken  possession  of  us  mock 
at  all  lesser  charms  than  the  name  which  "  devils  fear 
and  fly  "  :  "  the  name  that  is  above  every  name."  We 
have  tried  other  motives.  We  have  sought  to  reprove 
our  selfishness  by  other  considerations.  Human  love — 
which  itself  is  sometimes  only  the  love  of  self-seeking 
satisfaction  from  another — human  love  does  conquer  it, 
but  yet  conquers  it  partially.  The  demons  turn  round 
upon  all  these  would-be  exorcists,  and  say,  "  Jesus 
we  know.  .  .  but  who  are  ye  ?  "  It  is  only  when  the 
Ark  is  carried  into  the  Temple  that  Dagon  falls  prone 
before  it.  If  you  would  drive  self  out  of  your  hearts — 
and  if  you  do  not  it  will  slay  you — if  you  would  drive 
self  out,  let  Christ's  love  and  sacrifice  come  in.  And 
then  what  no  brooms  and  brushes,  no  spades  nor  wheel- 
barrows, will  ever  do — namely,  cleanse  out  the  filth  that 
lodges  there — the  turning  of  the  river  in  will  do  and 
float  it  all   away.    The   one  possibility  for  complete, 


A   LIFE   LOST   AND   FOUND.  305 

conclusive  deliverance  from  the  dominion  and  tyranny 
of  Self  is  to  be  found  in  the  words  "  For  My  sake." 

Ah,  brethren,  I  suppose  there  are  none  of  us  so 
poor  in  earthly  love,  possessed  or  remembered,  but  that 
we  know  the  omnipotence  of  these  words  when  whispered 
by  beloved  lips,  "  For  my  sake "  j  and  Jesus  Christ 
is  saying  them  to  us  all. 

IV.  Lastly,  notice  the  recompense  of  the  stringent 
requirement. 

"  Shall  find  it."  And  that  finding,  like  the  losing, 
has  a  twofold  reference  and  accomplishment :  here  and 
now,  yonder  and  then. 

Here  and  now.  Brother,  no  man  possesses  himself 
till  he  has  given  himself  to  Jesus  Christ.  Only  then, 
when  we  put  the  reins  into  His  hands,  can  we  coerce 
and  guide  the  fiery  steeds  of  passion  and  of  impulse. 
And  so  Scripture,  in  more  than  one  place,  uses  a 
remarkable  expression,  when  it  speaks  of  those  that 
believe  to  the  "acquiring  of  their  souls."  You  are 
not  your  own  masters  until  you  are  Christ's  servants  ; 
and  when  you  fancy  yourselves  to  be  most  entirely 
your  own  masters,  you  have  promised  yourselves  liberty 
and  have  become  the  slave  of  corruption.  So  if  you 
would  own  yourselves,  give  yourselves  away. 

And  such  an  one  "  shall  find  "  his  life,  here  and  now, 
in  that  all  earthly  things  will  be  sweeter  and  better. 
The  altar  sanctifies  the  gift.  When  some  pebble  is 
plunged  into  a  sunlit  stream,  the  water  brings  out 
the  veined  colourings  of  the  stone  that  looked  all  dull 
and  dim  when  it  was  lying  upon  the  bank.  Put  your 
whole  being,  your  wealth,  your  activities,  and  everything, 
into  that  stream,  and  they  will  flash  in  splendour  else 

an 


306  A  LIFE   LOST   AND   FOUND. 

unknown.  Did  not  my  friend,  of  whom  I  was  speaking, 
enjoy  his  wealth  far  more,  when  he  poured  it  out  like 
water  upon  good  causes  than  if  he  had  spent  it  in  luxury 
and  self-indulgence  ?  And  shall  we  not  find  that  every- 
thing is  sweeter,  nobler,  better,  fuller  of  capacity  to 
delight,  if  we  give  it  all  to  our  Master  ?  The  stringent 
requirement  of  Christ  is  the  perfection  of  prudence. 

"  Who  pleasure  follows  pleasure  slays,"  and  who  slays 
pleasure  finds  a  deeper  and  a  holier  delight.  The 
keenest  epicureanism  could  devise  no  better  means  for 
sucking  the  last  drop  of  sweetness  out  of  the  clustering 
grapes  of  the  gladnesses  of  earth  than  to  obey  the 
stringent  requirement,  and  so  realise  the  blessed 
promise,  "  Whoso  loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find 
it."  The  selfish  man  is  a  roundabout  fool.  The  self- 
devoted  man,  the  Christ  enthroning  man,  is  the  wise  man. 

And  there  will  be  the  further  finding  hereafter,  about 
which  we  cannot  speak.  Only  remember,  how  in  a  passage 
parallel  with  this  of  my  text,  spoken  when  almost 
within  sight  of  Calvary,  our  Lord  laid  down  not  only 
the  principle  of  His  own  life  but  the  principle  for  all 
His  servants,  when  He  said,  "  Except  a  corn  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone  ;  but  it 
it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit."  The  solitary  grain 
dropped  into  the  furrow  brings  forth  a  waving  harvest 
a  hundredfold.  We  may  not,  we  need  not,  particularise, 
but  the  life  that  is  found  at  last  is  as  the  fruit  an 
hundredfold  of  the  life  that  men  called  "  lost "  and 
(xod  called  sown. 

"  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord ;  thej 
'•.^st  from  their  labours,  and  their  works  do  follow  them.' 


CHRIST'S    MISSION    THE    REVELATION 
OF    GOD'S    LOVE. 

"  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  Qod,  bat  that  He  loved  as,  and 
sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  oar  sins." — 1  John  iv.  10. 

THIS  is  the  second  of  a  pair  of  twin  verses  which 
deal  with  substantially  the  same  subject  under  two 
slightly  different  aspects.  The  thought  common  to 
both  is  that  Christ's  mission  is  the  great  revelation  of 
God's  love.  But  in  the  preceding  verse  the  point  on 
which  stress  is  laid  is  the  manifestation  of  that  love, 
and  in  our  text  the  point  mainly  brought  out  is  its 
essential  nature.  In  the  former  we  read,  "  In  this  was 
manifested  the  love  of  God,"  and  in  the  present  verse 
we  read,  "  Herein  is  love."  In  the  former  verse  John 
fixes  on  three  things  as  setting  forth  the  greatness  of 
that  manifestation — viz.,  that  the  Christ  is  the  Only 
Begotten  Son,  that  the  manifestation  is  for  the  world, 
and  that  its  end  is  the  bestowment  of  everlasting  love. 
In  my  text  the  points  which  are  fixed  on  are  that  that 
Love  in  its  nature  is  self-kindled — "not  that  we  loved 
God,  but  that  He  loved  us  " — and  that  it  lays  hold  of, 
and  casts  out  of  the  way,  that  which,  unremoved,  would 
be  a  barrier  between  God  and  us — viz.,  our  sin  :  "  He 
hath  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 

307 


308  THE   REVELATION   OF   GOD'S   LOVE. 

Now,  it  is  interesting  to  notice  that  these  twin  verses, 
like  a  double  star  which  reflects  the  light  of  a  central 
san,  draw  their  brightness  from  the  great  word  of  the 
Master,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  Hig 
only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  Do  you 
not  hear  the  echo  of  His  voice  in  the  three  expres- 
sions in  the  verse  before  the  text — "only  begotten," 
"  world,"  "  live  "  ?  Here  is  one  more  of  the  innumerable 
links  which  bind  together  in  indissoluble  union  the 
Gospel  and  the  Epistle.  So,  then,  the  great  thought 
suggested  by  the  words  before  us  is  just  this,  that  in 
the  Incarnation  and  Sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  we  have 
the  great  revelation  of  the  love  of  God. 

I.  Now,  there  are  three  questions  that  suggest  them- 
selves to  me,  and  the  first  is  this.  What,  then,  does 
Christ's  mission  say  about  God's  love  ? 

I  do  not  need  to  dwell  on  the  previous  question 
whether,  apart  from  that  mission,  there  is  any  solid 
revelation  of  the  fact  that  there  is  love  in  Heaven,  or 
whether  we  are  left,  apart  from  it,  to  gropings  and 
probabilities.  I  need  not  refer  you  to  the  ambiguous 
oracles  of  nature  or  to  the  equally  ambiguous  oracles  of 
life.  I  need  not,  I  suppose,  do  more  than  just  remind 
you  that  even  the  men  whose  faith  grasps  the  thought 
of  the  love  of  God  most  intensely,  know  what  it  is  to 
be  brought  to  a  stand  before  some  of  the  dreadful 
problems  which  the  facts  of  humanity  and  the  facts  of 
nature  press  upon  us,  nor  need  I  remind  you  how, 
as  we  see  around  us  to-day,  in  the  drift  of  our  English 
literature  and  that  of  other  nations,  when  men  turn 
their  backs  upon  the  Cross,  they  look  upon  a  landscape 


THE  BBVBLATION   OF  GOD's  LOVB.  309 

all  swathed  in  mists,  and  on  which  darkness  is  steadily- 
settling.  The  reason  why  the  men  of  this  generation, 
some  of  them  very  superficially,  and  for  the  sake  of 
being  "in  the  swim,"  and  some  of  them  despairingly 
and  with  bleeding  hearts,  are  turning  themselves  to  a 
reasoned  pessimism,  is  because  they  will  not  see  what 
shines  out  from  the  Cross,  that  God  is  love. 

Nor  need  I  do  more  than  remind  you,  in  a  word,  of 
the  fact  that,  go  where  we  will  through  this  world,  and 
consult  all  the  conceptions  that  men  have  made  to 
themselves  of  gods  many  and  lords  many,  whilst  we 
find  the  deification  of  power,  and  of  vice,  and  of  frag- 
mentary goodnesses,  of  hopes  and  fears,  of  longings,  of 
regrets,  we  find  nowhere  a  god  of  whom  the  characteristic 
is  love.  And  amidst  that  Pantheon  of  deities,  some 
of  them  savage,  some  of  them  lustful,  some  of  them 
embodiments  of  all  vices,  some  of  them  indifi'erent  and 
neutral,  some  of  them  radiant  and  fair,  none  reveals 
this  secret,  that  the  centre  of  the  universe  is  a  heart. 
So  we  have  to  turn  away  from  hopes,  from  probability 
dashed  with  many  a  doubt,  and  find  something  that  has 
more  solid  substance  in  it,  if  it  is  to  be  enough  to 
bear  up  the  man  that  grasps  it  and  to  yield  before  no 
tempests.  For  all  that  Bishop  Butler  says,  probabilities 
are  not  the  guide  of  life,  in  its  deepest  and  noblest 
aspects.  They  may  be  the  guide  of  practice,  but  for 
the  anchorage  of  the  soul  we  want  no  shifting  sand- 
bank, but  that  to  which  we  may  make  fast  and 
be  sure  that,  whatever  shifts,  it  remains  immovable. 
You  can  no  more  clothe  the  soul  in  "  perhapses  "  than  a 
man  can  make  garments  out  of  a  spider's  web.  Religion 
consists  of  the  things  of  which  we  are  sure,  and  not  of 


310  THE   BEVELATION    OF   GOD's   LOVE. 

the  things  which  are  probable.  "  Peradventnre  "  is  not 
the  word  on  which  a  man  can  rest  the  weight  of  a  crushed, 
or  an  agonising,  or  a  sinking  sonl ;  he  must  have 
"  Verily  I  verily  1 "  and  then  he  is  at  rest. 

How  do  we  know  what  a  man  is  ?  By  seeing  what 
a  man  does.  How  do  we  know  what  God  is  ?  By 
knowing  what  God  does.  So  John  does  not  argue  with 
logic,  either  frosty  or  fiery,  bat  he  simply  opens  his 
mouth,  and  in  calm,  pellucid  utterances  sets  forth  the 
truths  and  leaves  them  to  work.  He  says  to  as,  "  I 
do  not  relegate  jou  to  your  intuitions  ;  I  do  not  argue 
with  you ;  I  simply  say,  Look  at  Him  ;  look,  and  see 
that  God  is  love." 

What,  then,  does  the  mission  of  Christ  say  to  us 
about  the  love  of  God  ?  It  says,  first,  that  it  is  a  love 
independent  of,  and  earlier  than,  ours.  We  love,  as  a 
rule,  because  we  recognise  in  the  object  to  which  our 
heart  goes  out  something  that  draws  it,  something  that 
is  loveable.  Bat  He  whose  name  is  "  I  am  that  I  am  " 
has  all  the  reasons  of  His  actions  within  Himself,  and 
just  as  He 

"Sits  on  no  precarious  throne, 
Nor  borrows  leave  to  be," 

nor  is  dependent  on  any  creature  for  existence,  so  He 
is  His  own  motive,  He  is  His  own  reason.  Within  that 
sacred  circle  of  the  Infinite  Nature,  lie  all  the  energies 
which  bring  that  Infinite  Nature  into  action  ;  and  like 
some  clear  fountain,  more  sparkling  than  crystal,  there 
wells  up  for  ever,  from  the  depths  of  the  Divine  Nature, 
the  love  which  is  Himself.  He  loves,  not  because  we 
love  Him,  but  because  He  is  God.  The  very  sun  itself, 
as  some  astronomers  believe,  owes  its  radiant  brightness 


THE   REVELATION   OF   GOD's   LOVE.  311 

and  ever-communicated  warmth  to  the  impact  on,  and 
reception  into,  it  of  myriads  of  meteors  and  of  matter 
drawn  from  the  surrounding  system.  So,  when  the  fuel 
fails,  that  fire  will  go  out,  and  the  sun  will  shrivel  into 
a  black  ball.  But  this  central  San  of  the  Universe 
has  all  His  light  within  Himself,  and  the  rays  that 
pour  out  from  Him  owe  their  being  and  their  motion 
to  nothing  but  the  force  of  that  central  fire,  from  which 
they  rush  with  healing  on  their  wings. 

If,  then,  God's  love  is  not  evoked  by  anything  in 
His  creatures,  then  it  is  universal,  and  we  do  not  need 
anxiously  to  question  ourselves  whether  we  deserve  that 
it  shall  fall  upon  us,  and  no  conscious  unworthiness  need 
ever  make  us  falter  in  the  least  in  the  firmness  with 
which  we  grasp  that  great  central  thought.  The  sun, 
inferior  emblem  as  it  is  of  that  Light  of  all  that  is,  pours 
down  its  beams  indiscriminately  on  dunghill  and  on 
jewel,  though  it  be  true  that  in  the  one  its  rays  breed 
corruption  and  in  the  other  draw  out  beauty.  That 
great  love  wraps  us  all,  is  older  than  our  sins,  and  is 
not  deflected  by  them.  So  that  is  the  first  thing  that 
Christ's  mission  tells  us  about  God's  love. 

The  second  is — it  speaks  to  us  of  a  love  which  gives 
its  best.  John  says  "  God  sent  His  Son,"  and  that  word 
reposes,  like  the  rest  of  the  passage,  on  many  words  of 
Christ's — such  as,  for  instance,  when  He  speaks  of  Him- 
self as  "  sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world,"  and  many 
another  saying.  But  remember  how,  in  the  founda- 
tion passage  to  which  I  have  already  referred,  and  of 
which  we  have  some  reflection  in  the  words  before  us, 
there  is  a  tenderer  expression — not  merely  "  sent,"  but 
''gave."      Paul   strengthens   the   word   when   he  says, 


312  THB  REVELATION   OF   GOD's  LOVB. 

"  gave  up  for  us  all."  It  is  not  for  us  to  speculate  about 
these  deep  things,  but  I  would  remind  you  of  what  I 
daresay  I  have  had  occasion  often  to  point  out,  that  Paul 
seems  to  intend  to  suggest  to  us  a  mysterious  parallel, 
when  he  further  says,  "  He  that  spared  not  His  own 
Son,  but  freely  gave  Him  up  to  death  for  us  all." 
For  that  emphatic  word  "  spared  "  is  a  distinct  allusion 
to,  and  quotation  of,  the  story  of  Abraham's  sacrifice 
of  Isaac  :  "  Seeing  thou  hast  not  withheld  from  Me 
thine  only  son."  And  so,  mysterious  as  it  is,  we  may 
venture  to  say  that  He  not  only  sent,  but  He  gave, 
and  not  only  gave,  but  gave  up.  His  love,  like  ours, 
delights  to  lavish  its  most  precious  gifts  on  its  objects. 

J^ow,  there  arises  from  this  consideration  a  thought 
which  I  only  mention,  and  it  is  this.  Christian  teaching 
about  Christ's  work  has  often,  both  by  its  friends  and 
its  foes,  been  so  presented  as  to  lead  to  the  conception 
that  it  was  the  work  of  Christ  which  made  God  love 
men.  The  enemies  of  Evangelical  truth  are  never  tired 
of  talking  in  that  sense  ;  and  some  of  its  unwise  friends 
have  given  reason  for  the  caricature.  But  the  true 
Christian  teaching  is,  "  God  so  loved  .  .  .  that  He 
gave."  The  love  is  the  cause  of  the  mission,  and  not  the 
mission  that  which  evokes  the  love.  So  let  us  be  sure 
that,  not  because  Christ  died  does  God  love  us  sinful 
creatures,  but  that,  because  God  loves  us,  Christ  died 
for  us. 

The  third  thing  which  the  mission  of  Christ  teaches 
us  about  the  love  of  God  is  that  it  is  a  love  which  takes 
note  of  and  overcomes  man's  sin.  I  have  said,  as 
plainly  as  I  can,  that  I  reject  the  travesty  of  Christianity 
which  implies  that  it  was  Christ's  mission  which  orig- 


THE   RBVELATION  OF  GOD's  LOYS.  313 

mated  God's  love  to  men.  But  a  love  that  does  not 
in  the  slightest  degree  care  whether  its  object  is  good 
or  bad — what  sort  of  a  love  do  yon  call  that  ?  What 
do  yon  name  it  when  a  father  shows  it  to  his  children  ? 
Moral  indifference  ;  culpable  and  weak  and  fatal.  And 
is  it  anything  nobler,  if  you  transfer  it  to  God,  and 
say  that  it  is  all  the  same  to  Him  whether  a  man  is 
living  the  life  of  a  hog,  and  forgetting  aU  that  is  high 
and  noble,  or  whether  he  is  pressing  with  all  his  strength 
towards  light  and  truth  and  goodness?  Surely,  surely 
they  who,  in  the  name  of  their  reverence  for  the  supreme 
love  of  God,  cover  over  the  fact  of  His  righteousness, 
are  mutilating  and  killing  the  very  attribute  that  they 
are  trying  to  exalt.  A  love  that  cares  nothing  for  the 
moral  character  of  its  object  is  not  love,  but  hate  ;  it 
is  not  kindness,  but  cruelty.  Take  away  the  background 
because  it  is  so  black,  and  you  lower  the  brilliancy  of 
whiteness  of  that  which  stands  in  front  of  it.  There 
is  such  a  property  in  God  as  is  fittingly  described  by 
that  tremendous  word  "wrath."  God  cannot,  being 
wkat  He  is,  treat  sin  as  if  it  were  no  sin  ;  and  therefore 
we  read,  "  He  sent  His  son  to  be  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins."  The  black  dam,  which  we  build  up  between 
ourselves  and  the  river  of  the  water  of  life,  is  to  be 
swept  away ;  and  it  is  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  which 
makes  it  possible  for  the  highest  gift  of  God's  love  to 
pour  over  the  ruined  and  partially  removed  barrier 
and  to  flood  a  man's  soul.  Brethren,  no  God  that  is 
worthy  the  name  can  give  Himself  to  a  sinful  soul.  ls\i 
sinful  soul  that  has  not  the  habit,  the  guilt,  the  penally 
of  its  sins  swept  away,  is  capable  of  receiving  the  life, 
which  is  the  highest  gift  of  the  love.     So  our  twin  texts 


314  THE   REVELATION    OF   GOD'S   LOVB. 

divide  what  1  may  call  the  process  of  redemption  between 
them  ;  and  whilst  the  one  says,  "  He  sent  His  Son  that 
we  should  have  life  through  Him,"  the  other  tells  us 
of  how  the  sins  which  bar  the  entrance  of  that  life  into 
our  hearts,  as  our  own  consciences  tell  us  they  do,  can 
be  removed.  There  must  first  be  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  then  that  mighty  love  reaches  its  purpose  and 
attains  its  end,  and  can  give  us  the  life  of  God  to  be 
the  life  of  our  souls.  So  much  for  my  first  and  principal 
question. 

II.  Now,  I  have  to  ask,  secondly,  how  comes  it  that 
Christ's  mission  says  anything  about  God's  love  ? 

That  question  is  a  very  plain  one,  and  I  should  like  to 
press  the  answer  to  it  very  emphatically.  Take  any 
other  of  the  great  names  of  the  world's  history  of  poet, 
thinker,  philosopher,  moralist,  practical  benefactor ;  is  it 
possible  to  apply  such  a  thought  as  this  to  them— except 
with  a  hundred  explanations  and  limitations — that  they, 
however  radiant,  however  wise,  however  beneficent, 
however  fruitful  their  influence,  make  men  sure  that 
God  loves  them  ?  The  thing  is  ridiculous,  unless  you  are 
using  language  in  a  very  fantastic  and  artificial  fashion. 

Christ's  mission  reveals  God's  love,  because  Christ  is 
the  Son  of  God.  If  it  is  true,  as  Jesus  said,  that  "  He 
that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father,"  then  I  can  say, 
"  In  Thy  tenderness,  in  Thy  patience,  in  Thy  attracting 
of  the  publican  and  the  harlot,  in  Thy  sympathy  with 
all  the  erring  and  the  sorrowful,  and,  most  of  all,  in 
Thy  agony  and  passion,  in  Thy  cross  and  death,  I  see  the 
glory  of  God  which  is  the  love  of  God."  Brother,  if 
you  break  that  link,  which  binds  the  man  Christ  Jesus 
with  the  ever-living  and  the  ever-loving  God,  I  know 


THB  REVELATION   OF   GOD's   LOVE.  31;) 

not  how  you  can  draw  from  the  record  of  His  life  and 
death  a  confidence,  which  nothing  can  shake,  in  the  love 
of  the  Father. 

Then  there  is  another  point.  Christ's  mission  speaks 
to  ns  about  God's  love,  if — and  I  was  going  to  say  only 
if — we  regard  it  as  His  mission  to  be  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins.  Strike  out  the  death  as  the  sacrifice  for  the 
world's  sin,  and  what  you  have  left  is  a  maimed  some- 
thing, which  may  be,  and  I  thankfully  recognise  often 
is,  very  strengthening,  very  helpful,  very  calming,  very 
ennobling,  even  to  men  who  do  not  sympathise  with 
the  view  of  that  work  which  I  am  now  setting  forth, 
but  which  is  all  that  to  them,  very  largely,  because  of 
the  unconscious  influence  of  the  truths  which  they  have 
cast  away.  It  seems  to  me  that  those  who,  in  the  name 
of  the  highest  paternal  love  of  God,  reject  the  thought 
of  Christ's  sacrificial  death,  are  kicking  away  the  ladder 
by  which  they  have  climbed,  and  are  better  than  their 
creeds,  and  happily  illogical.  It  is  the  Cross  that 
reveals  the  love,  and  it  is  the  Cross  as  the  means  of 
propitiation  that  pours  the  light  of  that  blessed  conviction 
into  men's  hearts. 

III.  My  last  question  is  this :  what  does  Christ's 
mission  say  about  God's  love  to  me  ? 

We  know  what  it  ought  to  say.  It  ought  to  carry,  as 
on  the  crest  of  a  great  wave,  the  conviction  of  that  Divine 
love  into  our  hearts,  to  be  fruitful  there.  It  ought  to 
sweep  out,  as  on  the  crest  of  a  great  wave,  our  sins  and 
evils.  It  ought  to  do  this  ;  does  it  ?  On  some  of  us  I 
fear  it  produces  no  effect  at  all.  Some  of  you,  dear 
friends,  look  at  that  light  with  lack-lustre  eyes,  or,  rather, 
v*ith  blind  eyes,  that  are  dark  as  midnight,  in  the  blaze 


:U6  THE    liKVELATION    OF   GOD'S    LOVB. 

of  noonday.  The  voice  comes  from  the  Cross,  sweet  ab 
that  of  harpers  harping  with  their  harps,  and  mighty  as 
the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  you  hear  nothing.  Some 
of  us  it  slightly  moves  now  and  then,  and  there  an  end. 

Brethren,  you  have  to  turn  the  world-wide  generality 
into  a  personal  possession.  Yoa  have  to  say,  "  He  loved 
me^  and  gave  Himself  for  ?w^."  It  is  of  no  use  to  believe 
in  a  universal  Saviour  ;  do  you  trust  in  your  particular 
Saviour  ?  It  is  of  no  use  to  have  the  most  orthodox 
and  clear  conceptions  of  the  relation  between  the  Cross 
of  Christ  and  the  revelation  to  men  of  the  love  of  God. 
Have  you  made  that  revelation  the  means  of  bringing 
into  your  own  personal  life  the  conviction  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  your  Saviour,  the  propitiation  for  your  sins,  the 
Giver  to  you  of  life  eternal  ?  It  is  faith  that  does  that. 
Note  that,  in  the  great  foundation  passage  to  which  I 
have  made  frequent  reference,  there  are  two  conditions 
put  in  between  the  beginning  and  the  end.  Some  of  us 
are  disposed  to  say,  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  every 
man  might  have  eternal  life."  That  is  not  what  Christ 
said, "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  " — and  here  follows  the 
first  condition — "  He  gam  His  Son  that " — and  here  fol- 
lows the  second — "  he  that  believeth  on  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  God  has  done  what  it 
is  needful  for  Him  to  do.  His  part  of  the  conditions  has 
been  fulfilled.  Fulfil  yours— "  He  that  believeth  on 
Him."  And  if  you  can  say,  not  He  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sin,  but  for  my  sin,  then  you  will  live  and  move 
and  have  your  being  in  a  heaven  of  love,  and  will  love 
Him  back  again  with  an  echo  and  reflrction  of  His  own, 
and  nothing  shall  be  able  to  separate  you  from  the  love 
of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 


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Theological  Seminary-Speer   Library 


12  01026  2881 


